The key to successful strategy execution is a management operating system that promotes efficient, data driven decision making. But how do you ensure you have the right system in place? Let’s take a minute to look more closely….
What is a Management Operating System?
In its simplest form, a management operating system is a combination of systems, process and tools that are designed to facilitate clear, data driven communication and teamwork between the functions and senior leaders of a business.
The best operating systems are specifically tailored for the needs of the individual business and designed to ensure key strategic objectives and KPIs are kept front and centre. They will also ensure accountability is clearly assigned to leaders and progress in relation to each objective and KPI is tracked and measured at regular intervals.
Why is a solid Management Operating System so Important?
A good operating system effectively provides the glue to bring the senior leadership group together to work as a team to ensure the strategic objectives and KPIs are achieved for the business. It provides a mechanism to ensure key leaders remain well informed as to progress of each strategic objective and KPI – particularly critical where cross-functional dependencies exist.
Over time it should form the central platform to measure and track the key initiatives of the business and provide a forum for leaders to remain informed.
It should help surface issues in a timely manner and provide a forum for the leadership group to collectively own the resolution of issues – irrespective of who is ultimately responsible for delivery of any particular objective.
What is a good Management Operating System comprised of?
Good management operating systems will differ according to the complexity and stage of maturity of each business, however at their core they need to have the following essential elements to truly drive performance:
- Clearly articulated inputs: Simple, important and measurable objectives for the functional leaders in the business to identify with and connect to. Each of these should connect directly to the overarching corporate strategy and be assigned to someone responsible for delivery
- Great structure: the senior leadership group should devise a regular meeting cadence and have each meeting controlled by a well-structured agenda to streamline the focus and conversation to drive efficiency. This agenda should primarily focus on ensuring bottlenecks are identified and issues discussed to help ensure objectives can be achieved in a timely manner
- Simple tools: at the heart of the operating system lies the “scoreboard” or tracking tool. These should be simple, easily accessible tools tailored for each business, that help keep the important things front and centre and provide visible tracking and measurement of achievement and progress.
The essential elements outlined above provide the foundation of a good management operating system, noting that there is a myriad of other pieces of the puzzle that need to be wrapped around these to ensure it is appropriately tailored for your business.
To learn more about how we help our clients develop and embed tailored management operating systems, take a look at our Case Studies and Strategy Execution services page on our website.
Alternatively, feel free to get in touch with us to discuss further
