“Weekly Picks” (June 24th)

Here are our weekly picks of articles on Strategy Execution for the week ending Thursday, June 24th. Enjoy!

MANAGEMENT INNOVATION

[no recommendation this week]


STRATEGIC CLARITY

The growth triple play: Creativity, analytics, and purpose By Biljana Cvetanovski, Orsi Jojart, Brian Gregg, Eric Hazan, and Jesko Perrey (McKinsey & Company)

This article explores the advantages of deploying a triple-play of creativity, analytics, and purpose. The authors claim that those companies that do so reap a two to three fold growth advantage over those that do not. The authors then lay out some key tasks that CEOs and CMOs must consider to establish a cohesive set of the three capabilities. I’d honestly like to see the data set and to explore the approach to measurement for the three capabilities, but, with that said, it makes intuitive sense to me.


PREPARED MINDS

Your Data Supply Chains Are Probably a Mess. Here’s How to Fix Them. by Tom Davenport, Theodoros Evgeniou, and Thomas C. Redman (Harvard Business Review)

I always pick up and read posts by Tom Davenport. He’s done a nice job becoming the sage expert behind data and data analytics. This post urges companies to be as intentional with data as they would be with any other raw material that goes into their products. Therefore, the post implies, why not manage the “data supply chain” as fastidiously and comprehensively as one would manage any other supply chain?!


CULTURAL COHESION

What Does It Take to Build a Culture of Belonging? by Julia Taylor Kennedy and Pooja Jain-Link (Harvard Business Review)

Being in the midst of doing both personal introspection and an organizational assessment around racial justice, the exploration of “belonging” seems paramount. How do we make our organizations and cultures – places of belonging? This post shares what the authors say are quantifiable aspects of what it means to belong at work. This is an important topic for everyone to consider.


RESOURCE FLUIDITY

Lack of Talent Isn’t Your Problem. How You Use It Is. By Dan Schwartz, Courtney della Cava, and Peter Slagt (Bain & Company)

The idea of matching talent to strategy is such a basic concept. It’s common sense that organizations need to hire and/or build key capabilities to deliver on future strategy. However, I feel like many businesses are slow to respond. This post goes on to point out how private equity firms build value by aggressively deploying purpose-fit talent against a clearly defined value creation plan (VCP). With this strict intentionality, they outperform their traditional counterparts. Why can’t all organizations do the same?


ENABLING TECHNOLOGY

[no recommendation this week]

About George Veth

George Veth is a consultant in the areas of strategy execution and initiative management. Most recently, he has been leading a cross-boundary collaboration program with teams from cities across North America and Europe. He lives in Cambridge, MA, and runs a nonprofit SME Impact Fund in East Africa. His subject matter interests are organizational culture, management [system] innovation, and public value management.