Too Much Practice Makes Imperfect
Copyright Jack Mixner. 714 449 1040 www.mixnerstrategy.com
One statistic tells it all:
Before Carlos Ghosn arrived at Nissan, middle management spent approximately sixty per cent of their time planning. After he arrived, the ratio changed to five per cent planning and ninety five per cent implementing (Magee, page 102).
Strategic Implication
On the day of his arrival at Nissan, Ghosn formed nine planning teams to figure out what was wrong with Nissan. They had two months - later changed to three months - to create plans for Nissan's turnaround. That was the easy part.
The hard part was implementing. Ghosn held the planning teams accountable for actually implementing their plan. The rest is history.
Nissan closed plants in Japan (think about that), created a passel of new cars, simplified the management structure, changed compensation and advancement (read that, performance raises and promotion only), drastically reduced the number of suppliers, and tied employee bonuses to global results (Magee, page 94).
No more talking about implementing. Now they implemented. The pay-off was huge.
Planning stalled at your company? Focus on implementation, not strategy.
References
Magee, David. Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Rescued Nissan. HarperCollins. 2003.