StrategyDriven Resource Projection Forum

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Business planning is the art and science of identifying what a company should and should not do balanced by its available resources. While much of business planning focuses on setting strategic direction and defining tactical activities, achieving balance requires that significant attention be given to the critical area of resource projection.

Annualized resource projection involves a number of processes that together paint a picture of the organization’s resource availability and needs. Creation of this picture begins with development of two key elements: resource availability and standardized activity assumptions. These assumptions are then applied to the proposed activities identified during the alternative development process. The resulting all encompassing list of resource loaded activities is further honed through an iterative process involving resource projection and alternative selection into the final portfolio of activities to be pursued. Derived from this portfolio is the organization’s time bound resource availability and needs.

Capacity planning refines the annualized resource projections; giving the organization insight to the additional resources needed in order to account for the inefficiencies associated with resource scheduling; personnel hiring delays and qualification; and equipment maintenance, calibration, and retooling. Each of these inefficiencies prevent resources from being available one hundred percent of the time; thereby forcing the organization to either increase its asset base or decrease its level of activity. Capacity planning reveals the average level of inefficiency providing insight to the resource and activity planning adjustments to be made.

Focus of the Resource Projection Forum

Materials in this forum are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies successfully executing a resource projection program in support of strategic planning. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to a strong resource projection program.

Articles

Best Practices

Warning Flags

Documents

Whitepapers

Recommended Resource – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
by Patrick M. Lencioni

About the Reference

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick M. Lencioni examines five obstacles to effective teamwork. Focused on the executive team, Mr. Lencioni illustrates the harmful effects diminished teamwork has on an organization’s effectiveness. He then prescribes actions that can be taken to overcome these obstacles thereby increasing overall organizational performance.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven contributors believe that an organization can only perform effectively if there exists a cohesive, aligned, action-oriented executive team guiding it. We like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team because it highlights the common barriers to effective teamwork and an actionable process for overcoming these barriers. While the process presented focuses on an organization’s executive team, we believe the same principles can be used to improve teamwork at all levels of the organization. Additionally, Mr. Lencioni’s recommended actions support what StrategyDriven contributors believe is key to sustained, superior success; shared vision, focus, and commitment.

As a business novel, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team presents its principles for improved teamwork through a believable, vividly illustrated, and easily related to story of an organization’s struggle to improve performance. Many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website compliment the actions prescribed in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; making this book a StrategyDriven recommended read.

StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures Best Practice Article

One Source of the Truth

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StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measure Best PracticeMeasurement of observable variables has always been as much an art as it is a science. How, when, where, and with what we measure observables highly influences the values derived. Subsequently, when using performance measures to evaluate the comparable results achieved by various products, services, business units, and individuals or a single item’s performance over time, differences in measurement methods and/or data resources can create undesirable variations in derived values and invalidate the comparison. This increased information uncertainty in turn diminishes decision-making effectiveness.

To perform comparative analysis, it is critical that organizational performance measures be based on one source of the truth. One source of the truth exists when comparable performance measures are derived in a consistent, repeatable manner from like data sources. Specifically, this means that data acquisition is performed at a specific time/time frame, in a consistent, predefined manner, using equivalent instrumentation, from the same (preferred) or highly similar sources. Additionally, all computations and manipulations are performed in a consistent manner to maintain comparability.

Decision-making becomes increasingly uncertain absent the one source of the truth principle. All data has an inherent level of uncertainty. Information gathered on different items or on one item over time shares a common level of uncertainty when the one source of the truth principle is applied; an uncertainty that is equally offsetting under comparative analysis. However, when inconsistency exists in the collection of comparative data, a state of unequal uncertainty is created between the data sets preventing an equal offset and increasing the decision’s chance of error.

Additional Information

Additional information regarding organizational performance measures can be found in the StrategyDriven whitepaper series Organizational Performance Measures.

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven's organizational performance measures catalogEnterprise Performance Measurement

We can work with you to assess and improve your performance measurement system; yielding metrics and reports that are operationally relevant, organizationally consistent, and economically implemented. The resulting system helps improve managerial decision-making, organizational alignment, and individual accountability. Learn more about how we can support your implementation and upgrade efforts or contact us for a personal consultation.

StrategyDriven Resource Management Article

Resource Management Best Practice 1 – Attract the Best with Accountability

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StrategyDriven Resource Management ArticleIn today’s competitive environment, it is no longer good enough to offer employees a good place to work. Rather, it is imperative a company creates a work environment where the best want to work. Only when such an environment exists will a company attract and retain the most knowledgeable, skilled, and accomplished employees; who in-turn will effectively execute its activities and make it a viable competitor in an increasingly aggressive marketplace.[wcm_restrict plans=”40887, 25542, 25653″]

Accountability makes a workplace the place where the best performers want to be because of a shared drive for excellence. These organizations, through the individual and collective behaviors of their people, continuously and consequentially pursue performance improvement and achievement of the organization’s mission. The best performers, motivated by one or more of a variety of rewards such as contribution, recognition, advancement, compensation, and control, seek out highly accountable organizations because these organizations feed their motivations while at the same time presenting them with the challenge to continually improve.

In less accountable organizations, rewards are often disseminated on an other than performance basis. Subsequently, high achievers will leave less accountable organizations because their accomplishments are not duly rewarded nor their motivations satisfied. Organizations having low accountability will have difficulty attracting and will not retain high performers unless circumstances outside the organization compel these individuals to join and stay. Thus, the level of an organization’s accountability will determine the caliber of the individuals associated with it.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”40887, 25542, 25653″]

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Additional Resources

StrategyDriven contributors recommend the following resource that elaborate or compliment the Attract the Best with Accountability best practice:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
by Jim Collins

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Recommended Resource – Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars

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Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors
by Patrick M. Lencioni

About the Reference

Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors by Patrick M. Lencioni examines the organizational barriers that prevent the free flow of information and resources thereby degrading overall corporate performance. Focused on the relationships and inner workings of the executive team, Mr. Lencioni provides a process for breaking down these barriers and enhancing organizational focus on mission objectives.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven contributors like Silos, Politics and Turf Wars because it provides insights to the common causes of organizational barriers and an actionable process for overcoming them. While the process presented focuses on realizing annual and near-term objectives, we believe it can be naturally extended to more strategic goals. Additionally, Mr. Lencioni’s process supports what StrategyDriven contributors believe is key to sustained, superior success; vision, focus, and commitment.

As a business novel, Silos, Politics and Turf Wars presents its principles of for improved effectiveness through a series of believable, vividly illustrated, and easily related to stories of four organizations evolving toward improved performance. Additionally, many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website relate to Silos, Politics and Turf Wars; making it a StrategyDriven recommended read.