Professional Articles

Ford Motor Company: Chimney Breaking for Strategic Intent

FORD MOTOR COMPANY entered the 1980s in a tenuous position. With a shrinking market share, the worst financial performance in the company's history, and little cause for optimism, Ford began to transform itself. Quality became "Job One,” and employees on the factory floor began to participate in the improvement process. But significant improvement was blocked by Ford's organizational structure and autocratic culture. Ford had to break down its strong, functional "chimneys" in order to ...

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Global Procurement Team Impacts World-Wide Operations (Inco Limited)

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW This case study describes how a cross-functional team of middle-level managers was commissioned to bring creative procurement thinking to areas of their organization, previously managed in silos. The team produced CDN $80-90 million in sustainable cost reductions and cost avoidances over a two-year period and, when retired, left a legacy of best practices in cross-divisional interventions that have inspired other such teams to be launched in succeeding years. ...

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The Transformation of MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.

Tom Stephens came out of a short-lived retirement from Manville Corporation to join MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. on September 29, 1997. The British Columbia forestry company had reported four consecutive quarterly losses, and the shareholders were looking for a “turnaround guy.” Stephens had done just that as president, CEO, and, eventually, chairman at Manville. Not only had he successfully guided the company out of bankruptcy protection, he had navigated the choppy waters of asbestos-related ...

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Breakdowns: Access to Breakthroughs

WHAT ARE BREAKDOWNS? Once a team has committed to producing breakthrough results, a breakdown is any circumstance or event that looks like it will hinder or thwart their success. By breakthrough results, we refer to unprecedented or extraordinary business results that represent a dramatic break from “business as usual”. These are the types of results that: will make a significant contribution to the business; at first glance, seem impossible; although they may ...

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The Key Ingredients to Make Training Effective

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this technical note is to provide King Chapman & Broussard (KCB) consultants the benefit of our experience in the field, along with practical advice on how to make training at client sites more effective. Training is often included as part of an employee mobilization strategy. Regardless of what training course is used, we make the case that paying close attention to eight basic success factors will have a positive impact on the effectiveness of the ...

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