CorporateCoach eNewsletter
Issue No. 69, 6th September 2004
CONTENTS
- Editorial:
What are basic values?
- Coaching
notes: Balanced Business Scorecard
1.
Editorial: What are basic values?
 Welcome
to the 238 readers who have subscribed during our annual summer holiday.
We are back publishing every Monday until our next break at Christmas.
Apologies
to those readers in the southern hemisphere for whom August is the winter
- I know, I have been freezing in Melbourne for a couple of weeks!
Many thanks
to those readers who met up with me in Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Melbourne
and Sydney. It was a joy to meet you and a great help in deciding our
strategy for international growth.
Now it is
back to work. We have a major scenario planning exercise coming to completion
this month and the last module of a year's programme with Robert Dilts.
We have lots of new developments in the pipeline, so watch this space
for announcements.
And so to
the editorial: -
In 1969 I
travelled with 500 students on an overland expedition to India. On our
way out we visited Tehran and were 'chaperoned' by tourist officers, who
were reputed to be members of the secret police. On the previous expedition,
two years before, one of the party had flown home from Tehran and given
a press conference at Heathrow airport, complaining at the way Iranians
were treated under the Shah.
On our return
trip, having travelled through Afghanistan (which was then an absolutely
wonderful country) we were stopped at the Iranian border and accommodated
for three days in tents at the government's expense. This was a quarantine
exercise while we were each tested for cholera. Political freedom is a
basic value - but so is freedom from disease. Iran was the only country
on our 13,000 mile journey that took such measures to protect its population.
During the
summer I visited Dubai to deliver a course "Management Leaders"
to an international audience. Dubai is a remarkable place that has grown
out of a small pearl fishing port as a result of the intelligent investment
of oil revenues. Where there were two hotels on the coast there are now
17. Dubai already has more tourists than Australia and plans to more than
double this number. The old town is surrounded by skyscrapers, the international
airport, with the world's third largest duty free business, is undergoing
at least its third major expansion scheme and there are large tax and
planning free zones such as Media City, Internet City and Knowledge City.
They are building holiday and leisure complexes into the Gulf that are
so large they can be seen from space, and there are plans over the next
ten years for a theme park in which Disneyland could get lost. The place
is a remarkable commercial success and 80% of the population are foreign
workers who have been attracted to support this phenomenal growth.
However,
on the first morning of my course I used half a glass of tap water to
take my anti-malaria tablets. Within twenty minutes I had stomach pains
and I was ill for ten days. When I enquired, I was told that you cannot
drink tap water in Dubai. Here we have major international tourism and
commercial centre, the result of investing many millions of dollars, and
yet they have neglected a fundamental value.
During the
time that America was counting votes in Florida and deciding whether George
Bush the younger should be the next president, I was in the USA. I watched
a very interesting television programme about Bush's time as governor
of Texas. He had instituted tests of literacy and numeracy that were dominating
the syllabus of junior schools at the cost of a more balanced education.
The debate was about which was more important - the general education
of the brighter pupils or the minimum achievements of the many. Which
was worse, a syllabus dominated by testing or significant numbers of pupils
who failed to achieve basic standards of numeracy and literacy.
I was interested
to read last week a report in The Economist on a study to measure
the impact of the knowledge economy. The question was "To what extent
is economic growth driven by the acquisition of 'human capital'?"
The conclusion was that, although higher education was good for the earning
capacity of the individual, there was only weak evidence that high or
rising completion rates of secondary or university education are associated
with a country's long term growth. However, there was a clear and significant
association between literacy, labour productivity and rise in gross domestic
product per head. "Raising the basic skills of the whole population
can bring tangible macroeconomic gains that can help justify the cost
of remedial literacy programmes."
So, what
are your basic values? Where should you, your organisation or your government
focus effort? Sometimes the activities that make a difference can be quite
mundane. We know some companies whose Corporate Social Responsibility
programmes include staff visiting schools or adult centres to help with
reading practice. Seems like the right priority.
Probably
the greatest gifts I have received in life are good health and the ability
to read. So let us give thanks for public health officials and teachers.
PS: I am
returning to Dubai in December to address a conference on Career Development.
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2.
Coaching notes: Balanced Business Scorecard
Two of the
most useful things I have come across in my business life are the Balanced
Business Scorecard and Robert Dilts' neurological levels. The very first
Harvard Business Review that I subscribed to was the issue in which the
scorecard was first described. It hit me as a great tool.
More recently
we have met companies that have 'done the scorecard' and moved on, leaving
it in the litter of their past. I believe that it is worth more than that
and should have a permanent place in any manager's portfolio. The concept
of the balanced scorecard is that other great tool that we use - perceptual
positions. It grew out of a frustration with company performance being
measured only in financial terms. The 'balanced' scorecard measures performance
in terms of: -
- my shareholders
(financial perspective)
- my customers
(customer perspective)
- internal
management processes (internal perspective)
- ability
to innovate and grow (innovation and learning)
Having considered
a vision or strategy from these perspectives the scorecard approach asks
the following questions: -
- If my
vision/strategy succeeds, how will I differ?
- What
are the Critical Success Factors?
- What
are the Critical Measurements?
This gives
a four by three grid to be completed. I have found it to be really powerful
when working on an organisation's vision, mission and values. It is not
restricted to commercial organisations - the first time I used it was
for an Investors in People project with a careers service. The four perspectives
can be adapted to whatever might be appropriate. The key is to get a balance.
You can download
forms for use with the balanced business scorecard from the Brefi
Group web site.
Next week
I will review the neurological levels.
USEFUL
LINKS:
We aim to make the
Brefi Group web site the premier developmental site for teams and individuals
in organisations, so do please send us your suggestions and requests for
further development. And let us know what you think
of this newsletter, and comment on the content.
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We hope you enjoyed
this issue of CorporateCoach. If you would like to learn more
about how we can work together, then please contact me, Richard Winfield:
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