Strategic Consulting Group Organizational Capability Assessment

Strategic Consulting Group

Organizational Capability Assessment

Discussion Document

HiTech Co. (Sample Company)

© 2001 Quay Alliance, Inc. All rights reserved.

This sample report was prepared by Mark Youngblood, the developer of the Organisational Agility Assessment instrument.


Organizational Capability Assessment

Purpose and Methodology Summary of Findings Strengths and Enablers for Change Weaknesses and Barriers to Change Preliminary Recommendations

Table of

Contents



Purpose & Objectives

HiTech’s Strategy Team is evaluating several strategic alternatives. The team wants to ensure that HiTech is ready, willing, and able to implement the selected strategies and sees this Organizational Agility Assessment as a key element in that determination

The Objectives for this study include the following Assess the organization’s perceived need for change and

readiness and ability to implement these changes Identify organizational strengths that can be leveraged to

help with successful roll-out of the new strategies Surface the weaknesses and barriers to change that must

be addressed in order for the new strategies to be successful

Begin identifying actions that can be taken to address the weaknesses and barriers to change

Successful Roll-out

of theNew Strategies



Methodology Overview

Assesses AnOrganization’s

Agility

The Organizational Agility Assessment (OAA) is designed to assess an organization’s overall Agility—its ability to innovate and to respond rapidly to marketplace changes

The OAA is designed based on the characteristics of leading edge companies such as Medtronic, Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, and Starbucks in conjunction with the processes of complex adaptive (natural) systems

The assessment was distributed to a random sampling of 940 HiTech Co. employees including all levels and BU/SUs

A total of 465 employee surveys were gathered for this study



There were 28 questions in the survey that required a score on a scale of 1 to 7 and two additional freeform comment questions

We focus on the scores 1-2 (strongly disagree) and 6-7 (strongly agree) because this is where the emotional energy is highest

HiTech OverallScores

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

11% 56% 33%


0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

Scores



The Agility Factor is the net of the Strongly Agree scores (6 and 7) less the Strongly Disagree scores (1 and 2). This is a simple but powerful indicator of the organization’s overall Agility. We find it to be a more accurate indicator of the organization’s current state than averages of the raw scores.

Scores above +10 and below -10 are seen as statistically significant as well as scores that significantly diverge from the overall trend

HiTech AgilityFactorScores


Agility Factor By Question

1

23

4 56

7

8

9

10

1112

13

14

15

16

17

18

1920

212223

2425

-20

0

20

40

60



I. Bureaucratic


The overall score falls into four categories, each describing a general type of organization

“Industrial-era” organization—compartmentalized, control oriented, hierarchical, rigid structures, centralized decision making, inward focus, risk averse

II. Managerial

III. Agile

IV. Dynamic

Kinder-gentler version of bureaucratic organization —more creative and adaptable but still lags the market, relies on heroic efforts to sustain performance

Change-adaptive, creative, employees committed to inspiring vision, people are valued, inclusive and participative style, committed to innovation and renewal

Risk-taking, experimentation and innovation are the norm, authority from know-how, flexible operating environment, energized and committed employees

TYPE BRIEF DESCRIPTION



Level 1Bureaucratic

Level 2Managerial

Level 3 Agile

Level 4 Dynamic

1st Quartile 2nd Quartile 3rd Quartile 4th Quartile

AverageAgilityFactor

-30 10 30-10 50

21

HiTech’s scores indicate an Agility rating of Agile.

Relative Rankings

Assessment Scores



Alignment

Capability Overview

The questions in the assessment are grouped into five “Capabilities,” all of which are essential elements in creating overall Agility.

Creates focus and momentum, and provides people with a common reference point for organizing behavior and making decisions

Organizational commitment to shared vision, values and goals

Capability Description Importance

Adaptability Enables employees to respond quickly and easily to the rapidly changing marketplace to serve customers and improve the business

Employee’s freedom to anticipate and respond to customer needs

Collaboration Makes it possible for people to quickly and easily work together with a high-level of effectiveness to achieve business goals

Ability and willingness to cooperate to achieve win-win outcomes

Innovation Provides a constant stream of breakthroughs in performance improvement and new ideas for new products and even new businesses

Ability to generate and sustain a high-level of creativity & change

Vitality Creates the conditions where employees want to contribute their discretionary commitment and energy and achieve at their highest level

Energy and commitment that employees bring to their work



Capability Summary Findings

HiTech’s Agility Factor scores grouped by Capability are highly positive. Any average above +15 is considered a major strength. Two areas that are markedly lower than the others are Adaptability and Collaboration. This relates to issues that employees have with bureaucracy and lack of cooperation across business units.

CapabilitySummary

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Agility Factor

Alignment

Adaptability

Collaboration

Innovation

Vitality



Overall, HiTech scores as a low-end “Agile” organization This means that HiTech is above average in the overall marketplace across

all industries in its ability to make the changes needed to remain competitive in today’s market

There’s a strong belief in the need for change across the company and that HiTech is ready and able to make changes (Q28-29)

Employees are generally happy in their job and feel very strongly that HiTech’s people are its greatest strength (Q1 + Q30 comments)

People are loyal to HiTech , committed to its vision*, see it as a company that lives its values and is committed to win-win relationships (Q19, Q21, Q25, Q16)

Employees believe that HiTech excels at addressing customer needs and leads in introducing innovations* in the marketplace (Q28)

Summary Findings

Overall, HiTech is fairly well-positioned to succeed in

implementing new strategies

Strengths

* indicates that there are discrepancies on this point between the statistics and people’s individual comments.



Strengths — Summary Findings

Employee comments reflect strong feelings and a high level of consistency regarding these strengths

Employee Comments

WereHighly

Consistent

People — commitment, expertise, experience, and character

HiTech market share and years in the industry

HiTech brand recognition and superior products

Willingness to change

Senior leadership

Innovation



People believe strongly that bureaucracy is a problem in HiTech (Q17)

There is a perceived lack of cooperation across the organization (Q14)

Ineffective communication, including a lack of straight talk, is a top concern across the company (Q28 comments, Q8)

People think HiTech lacks urgency and that employees are afraid to take risks and show personal initiative (Q6, Q12)

Senior executives at times have dramatically higher scores than do all other employees

The business unit “strongly agree” scores were on average 30% higher than those for HiTech overall

Business unit #1 had consistently low scores, with “agree” scores averaging 60% lower than the other divisions

Summary Findings

In certain areas, the scores indicate that HiTech has barriers to change that need to be addressed in order for HiTech to compete at the highest level

Barriers &Concerns



Siloism and a lack of alignment around a common vision and shared goals are seen as significant issues for HiTech

Employees are strongly concerned about the uncertainty of their jobs

Employee comments reflect a concern about HiTech’s need to address customer expectations and the quality of products and services

Many employees believe that HiTech does not innovate enough and that the competition is ahead in certain areas

People wrote that they felt overwhelmed by too much change and lack the resources they need to do their jobs

Summary Findings

Employees written comments validated scores on the assessment and at other times seemed to conflict with them

Barriers &Concerns



Conclusions & Next Steps


Detailed Results for Organisation and Business Units

Remaining Sections of the HiTech Report

Strategic Consulting Group Organizational Capability Assessment

Business

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