THE COMPETITION QUESTION

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THE COMPETITION QUESTION

• These slides are examples of how The Competition
  Question can be adapted to look at performance
  responsibilities from a whole organisation
  perspective right down to specific roles and
  areas of work. They can be adapted easily by
  changing the focus and the examples of
  competitors.
• The final few supplementary slides help pull the
  conclusions back into practical ideas for moving
  forward.
• Please do not attempt to use these slides as part
  of a presentation until you have read and fully
  understood the relevant sections of Managing by
  Design, you know how the slide works, and you
  are clear on the points you wish to draw out with
  it.

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THE COMPETITION

• Imagine your group has been called upon to judge
  a competition to identify the best manufacturing
  company in the world. The competition has six
  competitors Motorola, IBM, Morgan, Komatsu, Lego
  and Siemens (Our organisation is an independent
  judge).
• You are allowed to see whatever you want, and to
  talk to whoever you want in selecting the
  winner.
• On what criteria do you base your decision?
• You have 30 minutes to agree a limited number of
  criteria which comprehensively determine Best

3
THE COMPETITION

• Imagine your group has been called upon to judge
  a competition to identify the best publishing
  company in the world. The competition has six
  competitors Kogan-Page, McGraw-Hill, Blackwell,
  Penguin, Texere J Wiley (Our organisation is an
  independent judge).
• You are allowed to see whatever you want, and to
  talk to whoever you want in selecting the
  winner.
• On what criteria do you base your decision?
• You have 30 minutes to agree a limited number of
  criteria which comprehensively determine Best

4
THE COMPETITION!

• sales
• market making wins
• integration with xxx strategy
• satisfied customers on the leading edge
• fame/predictability

• Imagine our group has been called upon by xxx to
  judge a competition to identify the best partner
  in five categories
• The competition has applicants from a number of
  companies including HP, Compaq, IBM. (We are an
  independent judge).

We are allowed to see whatever we want, and to
talk to whoever we want in selecting the winner.
What specifically could we measure to base our
decision? What would be the measures by which we
would comprehensively determine Best?
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EXPLORING THE CONTEXT OF ???

• There has been a competition to determine the
  most effective Professional Services Group in
  industry, the focus is on The impact the Group
  has had on its Parent Groups Operating
  Companies. You didnt apply because you have
  been asked to act as judges.
• The remaining contenders are Boots, JJ, Glaxo,
  3M, IBM, Motorola, all of whom have proved very
  forward thinking in this respect. Your job is to
  select, objectively, which is the winner.
• You can spend as much time as you wish, see what
  you want, talk to anyone, and do anything you
  need to reach a fair conclusion.
• What criteria will you use to determine the
  winner?

6
THE COMPETITION!

• Imagine we have been called upon by New Scientist
  to judge a competition to identify the best NPD
  Group in the Medical Industry regarding
• Impact on, and support of, their organisation
• (Sustainable) standing in the medical NPD
  industry
• Anticipating and meeting customer needs
• The competition has applicants from six
  companies Convatec, Coloplast, 3M, JJ, GSK,
  Boots. (We are an independent judge).
• We are allowed to see whatever we want, and to
  talk to whoever we want in selecting the
  winner.On what criteria do we base our decision?

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THE COMPETITION

• Imagine your group has been called upon to judge
  a competition to identify the best Business
  Computing Service. The competition has three
  competitors Tesco, Safeway and Waitrose (Our
  organisation is an independent judge).
• You are allowed to see whatever you want, and to
  talk to whoever you want in selecting the
  winner.
• On what criteria do you base your decision?
• You have 30 minutes to agree a limited number of
  criteria which comprehensively determine Best

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HYPOTHESIS

• If these aspects are important enough to use in
  determining the best, then
• They must be important
• They must be variable
• They must be observable
• And if the above is all true...
• They must be a key measure of process health
• They must require management
• Change in them is an indicator of the quality of
  that management????

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THE COMPETITION

• You have been selected (due to your great wisdom
  on the subject) to judge a competition for the
  Analyst of the Year award.
• All the analysts entered in the competition work
  in environments similar to your own, using the
  same tools and technology.
• You are required to make your decision based on
  objective data. You are able to gather what data
  you wish to support your decision, even if it
  requires simple system changes to collect and
  analyse it.
• On what criteria will you base your decision?

10
THE COMPETITION

• Imagine our group has been called upon by
  Computer Weekly to judge a competition to
  identify the best Departmental Manager. Our
  focus is to be on IT development in the Retail
  Industry and the competition has applicants from
  three companies Tesco, Safeway and Waitrose (JS
  is an independent judge).
• We are allowed to see whatever we want, and to
  talk to whoever we want in selecting the
  winner.On what criteria do we base our
  decision?
• We have 30 minutes to agree a limited number of
  criteria which comprehensively determine Best

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THE COMPETITION

• How would we feel if we were judged against these
  criteria? Are they a fair assessment of our
  performance as managers?
• Imagine that the managers from Tesco were
  unsuccessful in the competition, and that Tesco
  appointed us to work with their managers so that
  they could win the competition next year. How
  would we undertake this role in a manner that
  would ensure that they did?
• What implications does this have for your role
  and your managers?

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THE COMPETITION

• In your syndicate groups
• Imagine you have been appointed as a panel to
  judge a competition to identify the best written
  thought-out project plan/proposal from some 200
  submissions
• What would be the (5 to 10) clear and objective
  criteria that you would use to identify the
  winner?
• Be prepared to present your list (briefly) back
  to the rest of the group
• You have fifteen minutes to reach your conclusions

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CAN WE IMPROVE ON OUR ANSWERS?

• In your syndicates, and using the checklist
  provided
• Review the proposals made by the other syndicate
  against the checklist
• Consider how you might improve upon their
  proposal
• Add to or modify their proposal in any way you
  see fit, until you are comfortable that it
  represents the best approach
• Be prepared to present your conclusions back to
  the other syndicate group

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CHECKLIST FOR THE COMPETITION

• To what extent do the proposed criteria reflect
• How they understand and build partnership with
  the customers, and really add value to their
  customers business
• How well they develop inspiring goals, and build
  a real and shared commitment from their people to
  pursuing those goals
• How good they are at attracting and retaining the
  right people, developing them to their full
  potential, and using that potential
• Their ability to continuously improve and control
  their processes to ensure they are increasingly
  effective and efficient
• The quality of their internal information
  systems, and the accuracy and timeliness of their
  decisions
• Their plans for future improvement, and the
  extent of appropriate creativity and innovation
  in that

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SO HOW DOES THIS COMPARE WITH REALITY?

• In your original syndicate groups, and using the
  list refined by the other team
• Consider how well each of these things take place
  in your organisation at this present time
• Think through the reasons why this might be the
  case
• Be prepared to present your conclusions back to
  the group

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SO, WHAT HOLDS US BACK?

• What stops us from doing the things we know need
  to be done?
• Is it our job?
• Will it all turn out OK anyway?
• Do we feel comfortable/confident doing it?
• Is it a priority?
• .