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This post has a few not highly popular facts about the PERT Chat

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It Means Program Evaluation and Review Technique

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT chart is a scheduling tool commonly used in project management to illustrate the dependencies and flow of project events and milestones. For more details about the background and development of the PERT Chart, take a look at Eric Stallsworth's article, What is a PERT Chart?

Many know how to create and use PERT charts, but how many are aware of the history behind this project management tool and its relationship with other scheduling concepts?

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Facts About the PERT Chart

Also known as a network diagram, the PERT chart was first used in the late 1950s by the U.S. Navy while working on the Polaris missile project during the Cold War era.

Although Gantt charts and PERT charts are often used hand-in-hand, the Gantt chart actually predates the PERT chart by almost 40 years. However, despite being used earlier, the Gantt chart did become quite a bit more popular during the 1950s, at about the same time the first PERT charts were implemented.

The tradition of numbering the events in sequences of 10s (or 100s for larger projects) in an initial PERT chart is analogous to the method used by BASIC programmers when assigning line numbers to command statements. In both cases, gaps in the numbering system are intentionally left so that additional items can be inserted at a later date, if needed, without having to renumber the entire project.

While both PERT and Critical Path Method came into existence at about the same time, the two methodologies were actually developed independently of one another. Check out The History of Project Management: Late 20 Century Process and Improvements by Joe Taylor Jr. for a more in-depth look at the parallel development of these two concepts.

The PERT chart was the inspiration for the creation of several other scheduling concepts including, but not limited to, MAPS, TOPS, PEP, and PAR. While many of these methods never gained widespread usage, PERT, along with the Critical Path Method (CPM), became standards in the project management world by the end of the 1960s. More information on these other methods can be found in Mosaic's, A Brief History of Scheduling.

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History of the PERT Chart: 5 Little-Known Facts

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The Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT chart is a scheduling tool commonly used in project management to illustrate the dependencies and flow of project events and milestones. For more details about the background and development of the PERT Chart, take a look at Eric Stallsworth's article, What is a PERT Chart?

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This page gives a bulleted timeline of the history of TQM

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The history of total quality management (TQM) began initially as a term coined by the Naval Air Systems Command to describe its Japanese-style management approach to quality improvement. An umbrella methodology for continually improving the quality of all processes, it draws on a knowledge of the principles and practices of:

The behavioral sciences

The analysis of quantitative and nonquantitative data

Economics theories

Process analysis

History of Total Quality Management (TQM)

1920s

Some of the first seeds of quality management were planted as the principles of scientific management swept through U.S. industry.

Businesses clearly separated the processes of planning and carrying out the plan, and union opposition arose as workers were deprived of a voice in the conditions and functions of their work.

The Hawthorne experiments in the late 1920s showed how worker productivity could be impacted by participation.

1930s

Walter Shewhart developed the methods for statistical analysis and control of quality.

1950s

W. Edwards Deming taught methods for statistical analysis and control of quality to Japanese engineers and executives. This can be considered the origin of TQM.

Joseph M. Juran taught the concepts of controlling quality and managerial breakthrough.

Armand V. Feigenbaum's book Total Quality Control, a forerunner for the present understanding of TQM, was published.

Philip B. Crosby's promotion of zero defects paved the way for quality improvement in many companies.

1968

The Japanese named their approach to total quality "companywide quality control." It is around this time that the term quality management systems arises.

Kaoru Ishikawa's synthesis of the philosophy contributed to Japan's ascendancy as a quality leader.

Today

TQM is the name for the philosophy of a broad and systemic approach to managing organizational quality.

Quality standards such as the ISO 9000 series and quality award programs such as the Deming Prize and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award specify principles and processes that comprise TQM.

TQM as a term to describe an organization's quality policy and procedure has fallen out of favor as international standards for quality management have been developed. Please see our series of pages on quality management systems for more information.

Adapted from The Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence Handbook, Fourth Edition, ASQ Quality Press.

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The history of total quality management (TQM) began initially as a term coined by the Naval Air Systems Command to describe its Japanese-style management approach to quality improvement.

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This graphic breaks down three types of control in an easy to understand way

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This article is written about tools and techniques that were also touched on briefly in the text, there is an informational youtube video attached as well that talks about the best tools for performance management

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Performance management helps organisations become more successful and stay ahead of the competition. It essentially involves measuring, reporting and managing progress in order to improve performance, both at an individual level, and at a corporate level. There are many, many performance management tools designed to make the process easier and more effective. Here I look at some of the most common tools.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics
KPIs and metrics provide a way to measure how well companies, business units, projects or individuals are performing in relation to their strategic goals and objectives. But the primary value of KPIs is not in measurement per se, but in enabling rich data-driven performance conversations and better decision making. Measuring everything that moves provides little more than an illusion that performance is being managed. Instead, it's important to ask, "What goal will this KPI help my organisation achieve,or what problem will it resolve?" and "What decisions will the KPI help drive?" Well-designed KPIs should be vital navigational instruments, giving a clear picture of current levels of performance and whether the business is where it needs to be.
Performance appraisals
Alongside KPIs, performance appraisals are probably the most commonly used performance management tool. When used properly, performance appraisals are incredibly powerful for aligning the goals of individuals with the strategic aims of the organisation. To get the most out of this tool, however, employees must feel that the appraisal process is a regular, honest, fair and constructive two-way conversation. If not, appraisals can be a powerful de-motivator, leading to a decline in performance.
360 degree feedback
This tool is all about answering the question, "How well are our people performing in the eyes of those who have a stake in their performance?" It provides individuals with a broad assessment of their performance based on the views of those around them, including their supervisor or manager, direct reports, peers, customers, suppliers, and so on. Results are confidentially tallied and presented to the employee, usually by a manager. The insights from 360 degree feedback are typically used in employee training and development. Done well, 360 degree feedback helps to democratise the review process, by weighing the opinions of many people, instead of just the individual's line manager.
Management by objectives (MBO)
MBO is the process of defining specific objectives and then setting out how to achieve each individual objective. It's particularly powerful for specific work that needs to be done one step at a time, and is a great way to create a culture of working towards common goals. The idea is that, as each objective is achieved, those within the organisation are aware of their achievements, which, in turn, boosts morale and motivation. MBO involves measuring individual performance and comparing it with standards that have been set.
Performance management frameworks
Without a doubt, one of the most popular and best-known management frameworks is the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Voted one of the most influential business ideas ever presented in the Harvard Business Review, the BSC has been massively popular over the last 20 years. The BSC is a strategy execution tool that helps companies to: 1) clarify their strategy and communicate their business priorities and objectives; 2) monitor progress by measuring to what extent priorities and objectives are being delivered; and 3) define and manage action plans to ensure initiatives are in place to deliver the business's priorities and strategic objectives.
Reward and recognition programmes
When employees feel that good performance goes unrecognised and unrewarded, motivation plummets, and people disengage from the company's overall mission. Reward and recognition programmes are therefore an important part of any thorough performance management system, creating a method for celebrating those who are high performers. For many companies, this means dishing out financial rewards, such as bonuses, but simple praise and recognition of a job well done is just as important for maintaining morale and continued high performance.
Personal development plans (PDP)
A PDP is effectively a tailored action plan that is based on reflection and awareness of an individual's performance and needs, setting out goals for future performance and actions that will support personal development. PDPs are often used to identify specific training and development needs and create an action plan for meeting those needs (for example, through specific courses or shadowing other employees). It helps individuals set out how they want to grow, and what actions they can take to achieve that growth. This not only helps the individual feel more invested in the company, and the role they play in its success, it also identifies concrete steps that can help drive individual performance in the future.

Investing in or developing performance management tools, techniques and processes like these, is an important part of creating a culture of high performance. And that's exactly what every business, regardless of size, in every industry, should be aiming for - strong performance at every single level of the organisation.
Where to go from here
If you would like to know more about the KPIs, check out my articles on:

Or browse the Strategy & Business Performance and Key Performance Indicators & Metrics sections of this site to find more articles and many practical case studies.

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Key Tools and Techniques for Performance Management

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Performance management helps organisations become more successful and stay ahead of the competition. It essentially involves measuring, reporting and managing progress in order to improve performance, both at an individual level, and at a corporate level. There are many, many performance management tools designed to make the process easier and more effective.

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This blog talks about the basics of a variety of motivation theories and draws some conclusions about each as well

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The word 'Motivation' derived from the word 'Motive'. It means any idea, need, or emotion that prompts man into action. Motivation is an important function that every human resource manager performs. It is to actuating people to work for the accomplishment of the objectives of the organization. Theories of Motivation are focused in this article.

Generally, motivation at a higher level leads to Job satisfaction of the workers. As a result, it can reduce absenteeism, labor turnover, and labor unrest. Furthermore, motivation will enhance team spirit among the workers and increase their loyalty to the workgroup.

Naturally, it represents forces acting within a person. Above all, it causes a person to behave in a specific and goal-directed manner. Hence, Motivation is a process of arousing and sustaining interest in an activity in order to achieve a goal.

In brief, motivation directs human activities toward the achievement of organizational goals. Besides, it controls and directs human behavior. Motivation inculcates spiritual and moral values in the minds of people. Ultimately, it gives happiness and satisfaction to the individual.

NATURE OF MOTIVATION

Especially, Motivation is a psychological related activity. Motivation is the task of top-level management. Therefore, it is executed by the human resource management department. Hence, the purpose of motivation is to induce the workers to perform their best. Particularly, Motivation achieved by fulfilling the needs and wants of the workers.

Further, following are the specific natures of motivation.

1.Based on Motives

It will identify the needs of human beings. Usually, needs and wants may change person to person and situation to situation.

2. Goal Directed Behavior

It is a commonly accepted fact that human behavior will be motivated to achieve some goals.

3. Related to Satisfaction

Motivation's purpose is to satisfy human beings with the fulfillment of their needs. Similarly, Motivation is depending upon the level of satisfaction of workers.

4. Motivated in Total

In brief, a worker has to be motivated in full. However, if half of the needs of a worker satisfied, he will only be half motivated. Thus, human beings are to be motivated in full.

5. Complex Process

As motivation is related to the psychological satisfaction of human beings, it is very difficult to achieve. Hence, it is a complex concept to measure the level of satisfaction of workers.

Active Human Resources

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Consequently, several theories on motivation were developed by many popular experts. Earlier, F.W.Taylor has given a very famous theory of scientific management. In this study, Taylor concluded that workers naturally not ready to work. As a result, they need close supervision to perform in the job. Training also necessary for better execution by employees. Ultimately, workers motivated mainly by an increase in their pay and incentives.

After Taylor's scientific management theory, one very famous behavioral study carried out by Elton Mayo. It also called Hawthorne Experiments. Compared to scientific management, the conclusion of the Elton Mayo study created huge surprises in the world. The core findings are that the workers not just concerned with monetary benefits. In particular, if the social needs of the workers fulfilled in the job, they are fully motivated. Particularly, human relations with each worker considered the most need for workers.

At this juncture of different opinions on the satisfaction of the workers, some specific theories on motivation also developed. Particularly, here, I want to discuss with you only three popular theories.

MC GREGOR'S THEORIES ON MOTIVATION

Theory X and Theory Y concept were developed by Douglas Mc Gregor in 1960. It describes two different sets of assumptions that management makes about their workers. Let's discuss the X Theory of motivation.

THEORY X ON MOTIVATION

As a rule, this theory encourages an authoritarian style of management. In this view, management must actively intervene to get things done. Assumptions of Theory X are:

Workers dislike work,

They avoid responsibility,

Naturally, workers are lazy,

They have to be forced or threatened to do their duty, and

Workers have no ambition and motivation to work.

Carrot and Stick Motivation

Usually, the organizations that are using theory X only in large scale production. Accordingly, supervision will be very tight. The managers will control every step of the workers. In short, there is only little delegation of authority. Control remains centralized with top management. Usually, there is no cordial relationship between workers and management. The workers will do their work sincerely with fear. This is one of the popular theories of motivation. Let's discuss the Y Theory of motivation.

THEORY Y ON MOTIVATION

In general, this theory encourages a democratic style of management. In this view, employees take pride in doing a job and it creates a more participative environment. Assumptions of Theory Y are:

Employees are happy to work,

They are self-motivated and creative,

Employees enjoy working with responsibility, and

They accept responsibility to fulfill organizational goals.

By the way, the organizations that are using theory Y will encourage workers to involve in the decision-making process. Usually, management will create confidence, happiness, and respect on the part of workers. Automatically, in this environment, workers will have self-esteem and achievement goals. Hence, Theory Y follows a participation style of management. Authority and responsibility decentralized in the organization. Therefore, there is a cordial relationship between workers and management. Therefore, workers will do their work with joy.

Human Relations Will Motivate

Ultimately, theory X tends to get poor results. Adversely, theory Y produces better performance and results and provides an opportunity for workers to grow and develop. Next, we are going to discuss Maslow's theory which is one of the best theories of motivation.

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS THEORY

According to Abraham Maslow, human needs are major motivators. Subsequently, he classified human needs into five hierarchies. He published his theory in the year 1954. Maslow explained that the needs at the lower levels of the hierarchy dominate an individual's motivation. Once, these are adequately satisfied, however, the higher needs occupy the individual's attention and efforts. Accordingly, as per his advice, the management should satisfy the human needs from the lower level to the top level.

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

1. Physiological Needs - must be met in order for a person to survive, such as food, water, clothes, and shelter.

2. Safety Needs - related to personal and financial security, and health and well-being.

3. Love and Affection Needs - are related to the good, cordial, and caring relationship.

4. Esteem Needs - are made to feel confident and be respected by others.

5. Self-Actualization Needs - related to self-development, advancement for growth, chances of learn more.

Therefore, in the Hierarchy, management has to fulfill the human needs from bottom to top. If it is not possible to satisfy all the top-order needs, Maslow says, workers will not fully motivated. But, if the management fulfilled half of the needs, workers will be half motivated. Similarly, if the hierarchy of needs fully met by the company, workers will be fully motivated.

Besides, Professor Herzberg has given one advanced theory to Maslow's theory. It is also one of the famous theories of motivation.

HERZBERG'S TWO FACTORS THEORY

By the way, there is a slight difference between Maslow's theory and Herzberg theory. In Maslow's theory, needs are classified in the hierarchy. Consequently, from bottom to top, management has to satisfy the needs. The theory says up to the level of satisfaction of needs, workers will be motivated.

But, contrary to Maslow's theory, Herzberg's theory says there is no hierarchy of needs. There is the only classification of needs into two: One is maintenance factors and another is motivational factors. He published a book "The Motivation to Work" in 1959.

HERZBERG'S TWO FACTORS THEORY

Maintenance Factors

Working Conditions,

Job security,

Pay and allowances,

Relationship with Co-workers,

Supervision,

Status, and

Company Policy.

Motivational Factors

Achievement,

Recognition,

Job satisfaction,

Advancement,

Growth, and

A full appreciation of Work done.

Herzberg says the management basically first provides all the maintenance factors to the workers. These factors will satisfy the workers and they will work well. Maintenance factors will avoid absenteeism, Labor turnover, and disputes.

Subsequently, at the same time, if the management interested to motivate the workers in full, it should provide all the motivational factors. These motivational factors will definitely influence the workers to work happily in the organization.

In essence, the Herzberg theory may be understood in four lines:

The presence of maintenance factors will not motivate the workers.

The absence of maintenance factors will dissatisfy the workers.

The presence of motivational factors will motivate the workers.

The absence of motivational factors will not dissatisfy the workers.

From these statements, we can understand how the Herzberg theory differs from Maslow's theory.

CONCLUSION

In general, Motivation is a tool in the hands of management. If the tool effectively used, it is possible to extract more work from workers.

Some theories like Theory X, propose to threaten the workers. They assume only with control measures, we can motivate the workers. But, it is a failure model.

Naturally, Motivation is a psychological approach. It is related to the minds of human beings. With the help of recognition, encouragement, and well-being we can motivate the workers. This is the real and successful approach to motivation.

Ultimately, Motivation increases efficiency and productivity of workers. Productivity enhances production output. Consequently, motivation hikes organizational profit and country's wealth.

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THEORIES OF MOTIVATION | Business Philosophy

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The word 'Motivation' derived from the word 'Motive'. It means any idea, need, or emotion that prompts man into action. Motivation is an important function that every human resource manager performs. It is to actuating people to work for the accomplishment of the objectives of the organization.

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This video touches more on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for employees in the workplace

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How to motivate employees in the workplace - Extrinsic motivation vs intrinsic motivation

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This page goes in depth about Fiedler, specifically his contingency theory of leadership, I felt it was great added knowledge

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Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership states that your effectiveness as a leader is determined by how well your leadership style matches the situation.

Fiedler's Contingency Theory

Fiedler's Contingency Theory, just like all contingency theories, states that there is no one best way to lead your team. The best way to lead your team will instead be determined by the situation.

It is important to realize that in Fiedler's Contingency Theory your leadership style is fixed. You cannot change your style to suit the situation. Instead, you must put leaders into situations that match their style.

This puts the theory at odds with more modern contingency theories such as situational leadership.

There are two important factors in Fiedler's Contingency Theory: leadership style and situational favorableness.

1. Leadership Style

The first step in using the model is to determine your natural leadership style. To do this, Fiedler developed a scale called the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC).

To score yourself on this scale you have to describe the coworker with whom you least prefer to work.

What do you think about those people you least prefer working with?

Well, according to the model, the more favorably you rated the person you least prefer to work with the more relationship oriented you are. The less favorably you rated the person you least like working with the more task-oriented you are. So, in a nutshell:

High LPC = Relationship-oriented leader.

Low LPC = Task-oriented leader.

Task-oriented leaders tend to be good at organizing teams and projects and gettings things done. Relationship-oriented leaders tend to be good at building good relationships and managing conflict to get things done.

2. Situational Favorableness

The next step is to understand the favorableness of the situation you face. This is determined by how much control over the situation you have as a leader (situational control).

Determining situational favorableness is done by examining the following three factors:

a. Leader-Member Relations

This factor measures how much your team trusts you. Greater trust increases the favorableness of the situation and less trust reduces it.

b. Task Structure

This factor measures the tasks that need to be performed. Are they clear and precise or vague?

Vague tasks decrease the favorableness of the situation and concrete and clear tasks increase it.

c. Position Power

This is determined by your authority, meaning the power you have to reward or punish your subordinates. As you might expect, having more power increases the situational favorableness.

Using the Model

To use Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership follow these steps.

Step 1. Identify your Leadership Style

The first step is to determine your preferred leadership style using the LPC scale.

You can use the following table to score yourself on the LPC scale. Fill in your answers keeping in mind the one person that you least like to work with.

You can now calculate your LPC score by totaling all the numbers you circled. You can interpret your score as follows:

73 and above: You are a relationship-oriented leader.

54 and below: You are a task-oriented leader.

Between 55 and 72: You are a mixture of both and it's up to you to determine which style suits you the best.

Step 2: Understand your Situation

To understand the situation you are facing answer the following questions:

Is trust with your team high or low (member relations)?

Are tasks vague or clear-cut and well understood (task structure)?

Is your authority low or high (position power)?

The easiest way to do this is to score each answer from 1 to 10, with 10 representing the highest value.

Step 3: Find the Right Leadership Style

Now that we understand how we like to lead, and we understand the situation we are facing, we're in a position to determine if we have the right style for the situation we're facing.

The table below allows you to determine your results:

This table is showing us what Fiedler found to be the best leadership style given different combinations of the situational factors. Note that the red line in this diagram represents task-oriented leaders, and the yellow line represents relationship-oriented leaders.

In general, you can see that when situations are highly favorable or highly unfavorable the task-oriented leader is most effective. It is only in the middle area, where situational factors are mixed, that the relationship-oriented leader is most effective.

From Fiedler's perspective, you would place leaders into situations that are most suited to their style. However, a more modern approach is to adapt your style according to the situation.

Contingency Theory Examples

Example 1: PizzaHut Restaurant Manager

In this example, we're going to imagine that you have been newly appointed the manager of a PizzaHut restaurant. In this scenario we might expect the following situational factors:

Trust will be low. This is because you are new to the job so your team won't trust you. Secondly, staff turnover is high so it's going to be difficult to build strong relationships.

Task structure is high. This is because there are extremely clear operating procedures to follow covering everything from how to make each pizza, to how to welcome customers to the restaurant.

Position power is high. You have the ability to hire and fire and reward and punish as is required.

According to Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership, and using our table above, a relationship-oriented leader is best suited to this type of role.

Example 2: Software Development Manager

In this example, we're going to imagine that you've just been promoted to be the manager of a software development team you've been working in for two years.

In this scenario, the situational factors might look something like this:

Trust will be high. You've already worked with the team for two years, know each of the team members well, and they trust you.

Task structure is high. Even though software development is complex, task structure is high as the team knows what they have to do each week.

Position power is low. Although you've been promoted to manage the team's day to day work, you are not responsible for line managing any of them. Thus, you don't hold much formal authority over any of them.

According to Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership, and using our table above, a task-oriented leader is best suited to this type of role.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantages of Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership are:

It provides a simple rule of thumb for identifying which leaders are best for which situations.

Unlike many other leadership theories, it takes the situation into account in determining the effectiveness of a leader.

Both the LPC and the situational factors are easy to measure.

The disadvantages of Fiedler's Contingency of Leadership are:

It's not flexible at all. If your leadership style doesn't match the situation that's it. Game over. You need to be replaced. There is nothing you can do to change the situation.

The LPC scale is subjective and so its possible incorrectly assess your own leadership style.

If you happen to fall in the middle of the LPC scale then there is no guidance as to which kind of leader you might be.

Your assessment of the situation is subjective. This means you may incorrectly assess the situation and consequently, you may incorrectly determine what kind of leader is required.

Summary

Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership states that your effectiveness as a leader is determined by how well your leadership style matches the situation.

The theory is based on the premise that each of us has one and only one leadership style which can be scored on the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale. Using this LPC scale you are either a relationship-oriented leader or a task-oriented leader.

According to Fiedler, task-oriented leaders get the best results when faced with strongly favorable or strongly unfavorable situations. In situations of mixed favorableness then relationship-oriented leaders get the best results.

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Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership - with Examples

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Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership states that your effectiveness as a leader is determined by how well your leadership style matches the situation. Note that Fiedler's Contingency Theory isn't the only contingency theory. Contingency theory is a general theory which says that there is no one singular best...

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This infographic does a great job of summarizing the differences between management and leadership

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This infographic touches on the different types of communication

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This article touches more on how to set up communication to be effective and well recieved

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A while back I was able to attend a seminar by Dr. John Lund on communication where he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, yet powerful. The best quote of the entire event was this: "Don`t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate so as not to be misunderstood." What a great way to put things in perspective regarding our efforts on how to improve our communication. Here are some of the notes I made from his presentation:
How to successfully begin a conversation in business:
Dr. Lund shared that men in general and women in business settings (so men all the time, and women mostly in a work setting only), want to know three things before they are willing to enter into a conversation with you:

1. Is what you want to talk about going to be painful?

2. How long is it going to take?

3. When you are done talking, what do you want from me?

If they don't know these three things up front, they will make excuses to avoid your call or to avoid talking to you on the phone. The same applies if you come into contact with them in person. He shared that your manager or boss in a work setting will always want to know those three things in advance of agreeing to a conversation as well. The reason he gave was that men and executive women always want to know the exit to the conversation before they feel safe engaging in it.

So for example, if you are calling a client, the very first thing you may want to say is: "I realize how busy you are so I will only need one minute of your time to let you know about __________." This way the other person knows it will be quick and painless and that you just want to give them a few facts on the call that will only last a minute. Now they can relax and listen to you as you share the requested info. Otherwise, without knowing if the call will be long and painful, they may try to make an excuse that they can't talk right now, etc.

Same thing goes for a sales team. They call a prospective client and the first thing out of their mouth needs to be something to the effect of, "I realize that your time is very valuable so I will only need two minutes to schedule a time for a second call where I can do a 10-minute demonstration of our ___________."

Same advice applies for approaching your manager or boss to set up a meeting. Let them know if it will be painful, how long it will take and the end result you are asking for - they will be much more apt to schedule a time for you.
How to successfully conduct a conversation in business:
Dr. Lund shared some amazing tips on how to better understand the way we interpret communication from others. He also revealed some very interesting statistics on this topic. He said that when someone else communicates with us, the way we interpret their message is based on the following three things:

55% is based on their facial expressions and their body language.

37% is based on the tone of their voice.

8% is based on the words they say.

Dr. Lund said that these percentages above are the averages across both men and women together, but that if you looked at women alone they would even give greater weight to the facial expression and body language and even less on the words. This tells us that it is critical that we become very self-aware of how our body language is speaking to others as well as the tone we use. One thing I always recommend to people is to keep a small mirror by your office phone so that when you are on the phone talking to people you can look in the mirror because it makes you more aware of the facial expressions you have, which makes you smile more, which in turn ends up coming through in your tone of voice over the phone. It works wonders on how well you come off on a phone call, trust me!

Success in business is greatly impacted for better or worse by the way in which we communicate. Happiness in our personal lives is also greatly dependent on this very same skill. If you don't believe me just ask any married couple! Becoming a good communicator takes practice and consistent attention and effort on our part, and it is a skill that we cannot afford to overlook. There is no doubt that we can all benefit from Dr. Lund's tips on how to better approach people when we begin a conversation, as well as his advice that we "don`t communicate to be understood; rather, communicate so as not to be misunderstood."

~~Amy Rees Anderson (@amyreesanderson)

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Successful Business Communication: It Starts At The Beginning

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A while back I was able to attend a seminar by Dr. John Lund on communication where he gave some amazing advice on how to better communicate with others. His input was simple and easy to follow, yet powerful. The best quote of the entire event was this: "Don`t communicate [...]

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This article talks about HR, good practices, the history of HR, and some companies that have the highest ranked HR departments

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HR Best Practices: What They Are and How You Can Implement Them | Process Street | Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software

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500 million per year is lost from the US economy through disengaged employees. Meet the needs of your employees and business by adopting the best HR practices.

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This graphic shows some benefits of workers being happy in the workplace, this can be achieved by a good human resources department

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This text briefly touches on organizational structure, how to evaluate and improve your own, and provides a real life example to help further understand what it covered

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Evaluate your company's mission and strategy, and then use that to determine whether your organizational structure needs changing.

A company's organizational structure is a road map of its communication patterns. A well-designed structure can also make it easier to identify inefficiencies and new problems as the organization grows. Reviewing your organizational structure on a regular basis will help ensure that you are set up for optimal growth well into the future.

The biggest factor in any organizational structure is communication. In fact, that's really what an organizational structure is all about: creating formal paths of communication. Think about how you want employees to communicate, and then create a structure that reinforces your vision.

Does your organizational structure inhibit change and put your company at a competitive disadvantage? Should you consider changing it? If yes, how?

In this Quick-Read you will find:

The fundamentals of organizational structure.

How to decide if and when your structure needs to change.

There is no single organizational structure that fits every company. You have to evaluate your company's mission and strategy, and then build your organizational structure from there. There isn't one right way to organize the members of your staff, but some structures seem to work better than others, depending on your goals.

There are three basic philosophies around which most organizational structures are built:

1. The functional organizational structure, in which hierarchical roles are divided by business function. This traditional organization structure provides for units in the strictly hierarchic line structure (for example, production, marketing) to be supported by centrally controlled staff units outside the line structure (for example, human resources, data processing).

2. The departmental structure that has job roles divided by department (for example, by individual product line or plant), each having its own parallel HR, marketing and finance functions.

3. The matrix organization that has a combination of the two. The matrix organization provides greater flexibility and cross-functional opportunities, but it has the disadvantage of making workers report to more than one boss - one functional and one departmental - who may have contradictory objectives.

Other organizational structures are usually variations of these three styles. Which is best? It depends on what your organization is trying to accomplish and the management philosophy to which you subscribe.

Let's look at some of the policies to consider when evaluating organizational structure:

How do you want your staff to communicate? Do you want frontline workers talking to your president? Do you want finance talking to marketing?

How much freedom and creativity should your employees have to accomplish their jobs? If the frontline employees work on an assembly line, a top-down hierarchy may be effective. If creative teams make your product, then a more autonomous departmental structure may fit the bill. How much specialized expertise is needed in most jobs? Are workers interchangeable? Should they be?

Is this a service or a manufacturing organization? Manufacturing organizations can benefit from having certain levels of autonomy and creative decision making, but this is offset by the need for consistency and quality in production. A Subaru made in Japan should be the same as a Subaru made in Indiana.

Which qualities are more important to your market share: product stability and long-term continuity, or flexibility and rapid change?

A growing company has special considerations regarding organizational structure. Realize that as you grow and the market changes, your organizational-structure needs will change. Size erects barriers to group interaction and performance. Where once everyone did a little of everything, now people specialize. Increasing your staff can result in misdirected, thin-spread and impersonal communication. Consider putting formal structures in place to clarify lines of communication and responsibility so workers get the information they need when they need it.

"The best thing for an entrepreneur to do is accept that the dilemma between freedom and structure can never be solved. It won't go away," says Rick Maurer, author of Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Unconventional Strategies That Build Support for Change.

Ask yourself up front, "How can we grow yet maintain the spirit that made this place such a great place to work?" Strive to remove the barriers to communication, but acknowledge that the more people you have, the harder it is to maintain a loose structure without having details fall through the cracks.

One way to change your organizational structure is to reduce the dependence on the top level of the pyramid. Having all decisions flow through the president creates a bottleneck that constrains growth. Delegate the responsibility to trusted employees. By creating self-contained business units with expanded individual responsibility for those separate units, you increase the organization's ability to adapt and respond to change.

There is a clear trend at the start of the 21st century to avoid complex organizational structures by focusing employees on the company's core mission and outsourcing anything else. Outsourcing is a widely accepted and smart approach to avoiding the cost of creating and managing service and support departments.

NBBJ, founded in Seattle in 1943, and now the second-largest architectural firm in the United States, went back to the drawing boards in the early 1980s and turned its organizational structure inside out to create an environment that would attract, motivate and retain top-quality architects.

NBBJ decided that workplace structure reinforces their organizational structure. Instead of having executive offices with fancy desks and plush chairs, executives sit at the same type of desks as everyone else, out in the open, where they can be approached and engaged. CEO Scott Wyatt's desk sits at the top of a stairwell.

To further break down hierarchies, NBBJ created independent design "studios" of 25 to 40 people. Each studio carries sole responsibility for a given project.

Wyatt suggests that the smaller scale of the studio helps people feel safe more quickly. The sense of intimacy generated by working with a smaller group lets a new employee see his/her impact more quickly than a larger group would allow.

1. Define your company's existing structure. Is it functional, departmental or matrix?

2. Does that structure work well, or does it need to be changed? Examine market reports and competitors' 10-k reports to determine:

Is your product and its marketing superior or inferior to that of competitors?

Is your production more or less cost-effective?

What competitive strengths and weaknesses can be identified in the existing system? How much of each is dependent on structure, and how much is dependent on procedures and policies, not structure?

3. Involve the entire staff in every stage of the evaluation project. The lowest-level employees not only have a different perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the present system, their team membership and support will make or break the present system, as well as any new one. The management-labor relationship is by far the most important element in the success or failure of any organizational structure.

4. Consider inviting an outside team to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the existing operation. The outsiders will have fewer reasons to pull punches than staff members you can promote or fire. Valuable criticism may come from specialized consultants, owners or board members other than the president or CEO, and even customers.

5. Recognize from the start that, by analyzing your options, you may conclude that changing the organizational structure would harm, not help, the company. DO NOT HURRY. The existing system has gotten your company where it is. Don't plan to change it unless there is strong evidence that the change will make a very significant improvement in your company's competitive position.

Books
Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the Chains of Organizational Structure by Ron Ashkenas, et al. (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998).

Classics of Organization Theory, 4th ed., edited by Jay M. Shafritz and Steven J. Ott (Wadsworth, 1997).

20% Solution: Using Rapid Redesign to Create Tomorrow's Organizations Today by John J. Cotter (John Wiley & Sons, 1995). The first half of the 20% Solution features examples of how fast business-environment changes occur. The second half is on organizational redesign.

Designing Organizations: An Executive Briefing on Strategy, Structure, and Process by Jay R. Galbraith (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995). Jay Galbraith may be the most influential contemporary organizational design theorist.

"Management Issues for Growing Businesses," by Jack L. Bishop. U.S. SBA, 1991. First, select the format (Word, Text, or PDF); then scroll to the 3-page section on "Structural Issues."

Writer: Stu Watson

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Evaluating Your Organizational Structure - Edward Lowe Foundation

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Evaluate your company's mission and strategy, and then use that to determine whether your organizational structure needs changing. A company's organizational structure is a road map of its communication patterns. A well-designed structure can also make it easier to identify inefficiencies and new problems as the organization grows.

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This post talks about why organizational structure is important, and it compares centralized vs decentralized structrues

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"In 2006, the R&D product group had grown to almost 100 people. We had a lot of exciting projects ahead, but we had to decide which projects to prioritize. To facilitate our next phase of growth, we divided the team into 3 groups: Member Growth (to continue growing the network), Member Value (to enrich members' value) and Product Monetization (to find the optimal business model). We structured the team in this way to support both existing priorities - these were the key projects in the team at the time - as well as future-looking strategic considerations - we believed that enough growth would reinforce member value and eventually lead to product monetization." - Allen Blue, co-founder of LinkedIn

Like LinkedIn, each company develops a product organizational structure to support the overall company strategy. And like LinkedIn, most companies continue to shift their org structures over time to support the evolving needs of the business.

In this article, I argue that understanding the org structure of your company is critical for you to be effective as a product manager. First, I outline the main types and implications of organizational structures used by product teams; then, I share some of the tactics product managers should use in each type of org structure.

Although your org structure may not be as top of mind as your day-to-day product priorities, it reflects the key strategic considerations and power dynamics of your team and should be well understood to drive the success of your products.
Organizational structures and rationale

On the extreme ends of the spectrum of organizational structures are centralized and decentralized structures. Some companies fall into the middle, in what what are often referred to as loosely coupled, tightly aligned organizations. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on the extremes: any structure along the spectrum will have proportionally the same implications.

Going back to the LinkedIn story, Allen recounted:
"Separating the teams had three main benefits:
Focus across projects. We did not want to take our eye off the ball; we wanted to remain very focused on continuing to grow and engage members, and wanted to ensure we could still go to market quickly.

Development of specialized knowledge. We believed that the enterprise business required different expertise than the consumer facing platform and wanted to be sure that we were incubating that expertise.

Ability to attract entrepreneurial talent. By giving teams more independence, we were able to successfully attract people with more of a start-up mentality.

Team Coordination. When product teams are structured separately, coordination can become difficult. For example, we realized that there was often misalignment between the projects of the consumer team and those of the monetization team.

Duplicative efforts. Teams may look for resources outside the company, rather than partnering and leveraging the assets of other teams within the company.

Challenges in aligning goals. Fully independent teams can end up with contradictory goals.

The LinkedIn story has interesting lessons beyond the decentralized org structure. In fact, in general, any org structure would deal with these conflicting challenges. Centralized organizations have equal but opposite drivers to decentralized organizations. For example, focusing teams across multiple projects can be challenging in a centralized structure.

It is important to note that equally successful companies can use any org structure (e.g., Apple is centralized, LinkedIn is decentralized), as long as they are consistent with the broader product strategy. What differs are the implications for how product managers should engage in their organization.

Actions for PMs: Mitigate the challenges and enhance influence

Alfred Sloan noted that good management rests on a reconciliation of centralization and decentralization. To operate most effectively as a PM, you should focus on mitigating the drawbacks of your particular org structure.

Within decentralized organizations, PMs should implement different initiatives around team collaboration:

To reduce coordination issues, you should have frequent catch ups with product leads from other units and encourage business partners (e.g., product marketing) to do the same. One of the challenges is time availability, especially when PMs already interact with multiple stakeholders. A solution would be to schedule lunches / coffee with them, to be more efficient with time and build relationships.

To avoid replicating efforts, you should share kickoff documents (project objectives and plans) with other team leads and ask for direct feedback on how you can leverage existing assets or capabilities to achieve your objectives. Rather than doing it only as a formality, you should explicitly look to identify potential synergies. The payoff can be large enough to justify the extra meetings.

To deal with conflicting goals, you need to 'think laterally'. When asked about LinkedIn, Allen Blue recounts: "Conflicting goals are a natural part of decentralized organizations. In most cases, the solution is easier to find if people think laterally. For example, when designing the People You May Know module (a tool where members can invite other connections leveraging email contacts), the member growth team was keen to pre-select all member connections to drive member growth; in contrast, the member value team was in favor of not pre-selecting any connections, since they may not be relevant for many people. The decision was to pre-select only those connections that were already registered on LinkedIn, in a way that both goals could be met".

Within centralized organizations, PMs should leverage senior leadership and external expertise:

To mitigate lack of focus, you should clearly articulate your primary initiatives and frequently update product leadership on your progress. In practice, this means setting clear OKRs (objectives & key results) at all levels of the team to ensure clear, specific and actionable goals.

To increase specialization, you should focus on developing deep subject matter expertise. You should be actively plugged into relevant tech communities, attend conferences and constantly learn from experts in your field. You should also try to recruit a specialized and diverse pool of talent to bring in unique expertise.

To attract more entrepreneurial talent, you should ensure there are direct lines of communication between all levels of the org. For instance, you can schedule skip level meetings where entrepreneurial, junior talent can share their views directly with product executives.

As a PM, you should also assess how to improve your reputation and influence within your organization. In decentralized structures, this means taking the lead. As it is often mentioned in Silicon Valley, PMs should ask for forgiveness rather than for permission. You are in the best position to judge if an idea is good enough and if you believe in it, go for it. To be most effective, focus on building bottom up alliances to drive change and product prioritization.

In contrast, in centralized structures, the opposite is true. You should follow the overall product strategy and develop close relationships with the senior product leads to help inform the direction they set. The most effective way to influence product direction is to influence those at the top.

In summary, every company has two organizational structures: the formal one is written on the charts and cannot be easily changed by PMs; the other is the everyday relationships and tactics that PMs can and should adopt to succeed in any organization.
A big thank you to Allen Blue for sharing his LinkedIn experience. He is not only the founder of LinkedIn, but also one of the most humble, generous and inspiring leaders I have met.

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Why Your Company's Org Structure Matters

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"In 2006, the R&D product group had grown to almost 100 people. We had a lot of exciting projects ahead, but we had to decide which projects to prioritize. To facilitate our next phase of growth, we divided the team into 3 groups: Member Growth (to continue growing the network), Member Value (to enrich members' value) and Product Monetization (to find the optimal business model).

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This video touches on planning and decision making, it was created by a youtube creator that focuses on helping people be their best through gaining more knowledge on a variety of topics

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This is similar to a graphic in the text, but I like how this one is depicted in a circle as that exemplifies that companies are always making decisions in an endless cycle

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This article delves deeper into competitive advantage: what it is, and how companies can achieve it

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The key component for business success.

Definition

Competitive advantage

means superior performance relative to other competitors in the same industry or superior performance relative to the industry average.
[1]

What is competitive advantage?

There is no one answer about what is competitive advantage or one way to measure it, and for the right reason. Nearly everything can be considered as competitive edge, e.g. higher profit margin, greater return on assets, valuable resource such as brand reputation or unique competence in producing jet engines. Every company must have at least one advantage to successfully compete in the market. If a company can't identify one or just doesn't possess it, competitors soon outperform it and force the business to leave the market.

There are many ways to achieve the advantage but only two basic types of it: cost or differentiation advantage. A company that is able to achieve superiority in cost or differentiation is able to offer consumers the products at lower costs or with higher degree of differentiation and most importantly, is able to compete with its rivals.

An organization that is capable of outperforming its competitors over a long period of time has sustainable competitive advantage.

The following diagram illustrates the basic competitive advantage model, which is explained below in the article:

How a company can achieve it?

An organization can achieve an edge over its competitors in the following two ways:

Through external changes. When PEST factors change, many opportunities can appear that, if seized upon, could provide many benefits for an organization. A company can also gain an upper hand over its competitors when its capable to respond to external changes faster than other organizations.

By developing them inside the company. A firm can achieve cost or differentiation advantage when it develops VRIO resources, unique competences or through innovative processes and products.

External Changes

Changes in PEST factors. PEST stands for political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that affect firm's external environment. When these factors change many opportunities arise that can be exploited by an organization to achieve superiority over its rivals. For example, new superior machinery, which is manufactured and sold only in South Korea, would result in lower production costs for Korean companies and they would gain cost advantage against competitors in a global environment. Changes in consumer demand, such as trend for eating more healthy food, can be used to gain at least temporary differentiation advantage if a company would opt to sell mainly healthy food products while competitors wouldn't. For example, Subway and KFC.

If opportunities appear due to changes in external environment why not all companies are able to profit from that? It's simple, companies have different resources, competences and capabilities and are differently affected by industry or macro environment changes.

Company's ability to respond fast to changes. The advantage can also be gained when a company is the first one to exploit the external change. Otherwise, if a company is slow to respond to changes it may never benefit from the arising opportunities.

Internal Environment

VRIO resources. A company that possesses VRIO (valuable, rare, hard to imitate and organized) resources has an edge over its competitors due to superiority of such resources. If one company has gained VRIO resource, no other company can acquire it (at least temporarily). The following resources have VRIO attributes:

Intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks)

Brand equity

Culture

Know-how

Reputation

Unique competences. Competence is an ability to perform tasks successfully and is a cluster of related skills, knowledge, capabilities and processes. A company that has developed a competence in producing miniaturized electronics would get at least temporary advantage as other companies would find it very hard to replicate the processes, skills, knowledge and capabilities needed for that competence.

Innovative capabilities. Most often, a company gains superiority through innovation. Innovative products, processes or new business models provide strong competitive edge due to the first mover advantage. For example, Apple's introduction of tablets or its business model combining mp3 device and iTunes online music store.

Two basic types

M. Porter has identified 2 basic types of competitive advantage: cost and differentiation advantage.

Cost advantage. Porter argued that a company could achieve superior performance by producing similar quality products or services but at lower costs. In this case, company sells products at the same price as competitors but reaps higher profit margins because of lower production costs. The company that tries to achieve cost advantage (like Amazon.com) is pursuing cost leadership strategy. Higher profit margins lead to further price reductions, more investments in process innovation and ultimately greater value for customers.

Differentiation advantage. Differentiation advantage is achieved by offering unique products and services and charging premium price for that. Differentiation strategy is used in this situation and company positions itself more on branding, advertising, design, quality and new product development (like Apple Inc. or even Starbucks) rather than efficiency, outsourcing or process innovation. Customers are willing to pay higher price only for unique features and the best quality.

The cost leadership and differentiation strategies are not the only strategies used to gain competitive advantage. Innovation strategy is used to develop new or better products, processes or business models that grant competitive edge over competitors.

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The Courageous Triumph of Competitive Advantage

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Competitive advantage means superior performance relative to other competitors in the same industry or superior performance relative to the industry average. [1] There is no one answer about what is competitive advantage or one way to measure it, and for the right reason. Nearly everything can be considered as competitive edge, e.g.

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This article was interesting because it touched on some companies that really opened the gateway for all organizations to globalize themselves if they choose

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It may seem perfectly normal today to see a sign for Coca-Cola or a Toyota vehicle when you travel abroad, but that hasn't always been the case. Before instant communication was as simple as a phone call, email or text, global marketing was much more challenging. Only the largest corporations that could afford multiple manufacturing sites and distribution networks and had strong enough brand recognition to dominate across international borders were successful.

Global marketing is the ability to deliver a product or service to customers worldwide. If you want to succeed in boosting your marketing across borders and cultures, it takes careful planning. There have been epic fails and relatively few successes.

The ease of modern communications has had a dramatic impact on a company's ability to market products worldwide. The extensive reach required to distribute and successfully sell a product around the world evolved slowly but shifted into overdrive with the advent of the internet.

Benefits of Marketing Globally

Companies must adapt to a new language, update their brand message to the local culture, innovate with their menus, and dodge legal entanglements to create a global presence. It is a significant investment and carries potentially very high risk. The payoff can far outweigh the risk if the gamble is successful.

It's worth the investment because access to a global market can dramatically expand the number of prospective customers. Additionally, being the first to move into the global space can be a huge advantage for companies in terms of market share and name recognition.

Global marketing can significantly reduce economic risk. Globally expanding your customer base can protect you against a currency crisis or region-specific recession. A slump, downturn, or natural disaster can all be mitigated by expansion into multiple markets.

Moving Production Offshore Is the First Step

Companies that have paved the way for newer, smaller contenders to tackle the challenging global environment have some elements in common. Typically, moving into the global space is more evolution, not a revolution. These successful global brands started by first shipping some of the manufacturing overseas.

Companies that already depend on global manufacturing have an advantage. These enterprises have already successfully navigated the legal systems and accounting issues associated with doing business in a particular place. These companies also have a geographic advantage with established contacts and experience with shipping goods through customs.

A critical component of success of producing goods worldwide is the development of clear goals and consistent business practices for meeting them in unfamiliar territory. The positive effect of going through the process of navigating a foreign economy and culture is that companies establish consistent and workable business practices for operations, manufacturing, and distribution.

Another common element of successful global expansion is that companies have a consistent and strong brand that isn't tied to a single language.

Here are seven of the pioneers in global marketing that first took up the challenge of doing business globally.
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Seven Pioneers in Global Marketing

The ability of any beverage company to impact a worldwide market cannot be understated. Changing tastes in drinking habits is not easy, as often what and even how a beverage is consumed is closely tied to culture. Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known examples of companies that successfully brought their brand global.

A fundamental change in the business model in the first ten years was the opener for their big move around the world. Asa Candler envisioned Coca-Cola as a fountain drink. In fact, he valued the bottling business so little that he sold the bottling rights to three entrepreneurs for one dollar. Bottling operations enabled Coca-Cola to make and deliver a consistent product worldwide.

Branding the beverage with a uniquely identifiable bottle made it instantly recognizable. The see-through contour bottle and logo was something everyone could recognize, without being language dependent. Overseas production and bottling soared during World War II when troops could not get enough of the popular drink. After the war ended, the established bottling operations for our troops continued to produce and distribute the distinct product across Europe and Asia, further establishing the brand.

Coca-Cola did not expand again until the 1970s when the marketing department rolled out the "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke " campaign which also featured their jingle, It's the Real Thing. The jingle became a pop-culture phenomenon. Coke was able to leverage the recognizable features, the coke name and bottle packaging, to successfully market the product in various countries throughout the world where Coke had never been. The overall packaging and taste remained consistent, but the local operations were allowed leeway to adjust the taste within cultural preference parameters. The marketing department went to great lengths to adapt the advertising, promotions, distribution, and pricing to make it successful.

Another iconic company that expanded globally early was McDonald's. The key to the success of the fast-food giant was standardization. No matter which restaurant you entered, you knew you could expect a quality meal that always tasted the same at a decent price. McDonalds' tightly-held distribution of supplies and strict standards of appearance created a rock-solid brand.

The golden arches and color scheme became something instantly associated with McDonald's no matter where you went in the world. International expansion began in 1967; the company opened at least one store in every continent before the end of 1992.

Like Coke, the fast food company balanced the strong brand and the standardized product by adapting locally. The overall franchise requirements remained consistent, but regional menu adjustments created a foothold in local markets. Marketers adapted the advertisements and promotions to reflect cultural and societal expectations, and pricing was adjusted to make it affordable. For example, in India, the Big Mac became the McAloo Tikka potato burger and is available for home delivery. Middle Eastern outlets carry a flatbread sandwich called the McArabia in addition to offering typical hamburger menu options. In most of Europe, ketchup is a separate menu item available for purchase and not included with the price of the meal.

This isn't to say that it's been smooth sailing. Regardless of the strong brand and marketing prowess, the company has been labeled as a symbol of overbearing American economics and has been banned from many countries and locations.

Another company that found early commercial success abroad was Dunkin Donuts. Similar to the McDonald's model, the company embraced the strong visual symbol of the brand. The management team behind the international expansion created a detailed business plan, carefully researched and crafted to match the culture and eating habits in the target country.

Dunkin Donuts made a simple but key decision based on the product: The donut recipe remained consistent but local tastes should influence topping choices.

With a strong visual brand and business plan, Dunkin succeeded. In China, Dunkin Donuts serves dry pork and seaweed sprinkled donuts, and in Lebanon, the company produces a mango-chocolate donut.

Dunkin Donuts has more than 3,000 stores outside of the U.S., celebrating cultural differences while preserving its core product.

A strong brand, a core product, and an operationally-efficient headquarters all contributed to the success of the Domino's expansion worldwide. The critical elements of consistent quality and a recognizable brand translated across language and cultural barriers with few changes.

Domino's followed a similar strategy that Dunkin Donuts used. By defining their core product as bread, sauce, and cheese, the pizza company allowed the local franchise to use innovative toppings that accommodated local tastes. The marketing team focused on messaging and serving suggestions without adjusting the menu items constantly. Presenting seafood and fish options in Asia and curry in India, the company was also able to locally source all custom ingredients based on the geographical location.

The Danish toy maker leveraged strong company culture and a rock-solid brand to obtain the capital needed for expansion. The company remained centered on one of their core beliefs: Creativity and building are common to all children.

Expanding into America, exceptional U.S. sales drove the marketing team to deploy the same marketing and promotional concepts elsewhere. Lego quickly realized other countries reacted unfavorably to American-style bonus packs and gift promotions. It wasn't until after the failure of some of the programs that the management team began to research the specifics of what consumer perceptions were in the target market and how to exploit them in Lego's favor.

Like many successful global companies, Lego had a strong base product with long-term consumer loyalty. Parents who loved Lego as a child introduced their children to the popular toy.

The global popularity of the Lego Batman movies has helped boost the brand's image and recognition across the globe.

The Oregon-based athletic company was one of the first American companies to outsource most of its manufacturing to Asia. The company was fortunate enough to have had early exposure to operating in foreign locales when they began importing Tiger Shoes (now called Asics). Tiger provided Nike with plenty of lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid, which helped the company in its nascent efforts to sell Nike overseas.

Like other successful global marketers, Nike had a visual logo that transcended language. Concentrating on using the logo rather than the name, Nike began by endorsing international athletes like Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase, acclimatizing foreign populations to the Nike logo.

The company used these athlete endorsements as the primary marketing tool for global expansion. Nike broadened the company vision from running shoes and began to brand athletic wear with the Nike name. Choosing to endorse cricket, soccer, golf, and other smaller sports strengthened the brand, equated it with sports success, and ultimately provided name recognition in every sports venue around the world.

Sales of the Japanese-built cars began in North America in late 1957. This first international venture failed. With about 300 cars on the lot in Hollywood, Calif., the Japanese marketers realized their vehicle was underpowered and overpriced for the American market. The model was discontinued while marketers and designers returned to the drawing board.

Determined to give the market the product it wanted, Toyota designed the Corona specifically for American drivers. When released in 1965, the powerful engine, factory-installed air conditioning, and automatic transmission catapulted the company to the third best selling import brand in the U.S. The Japanese manufacturer established its brand as a high-quality, reliable vehicle with just the right creature comforts at just the right price.

Using this same successful marketing strategy, the company continued to release carefully designed new models that catered to American tastes. By the time of the oil crisis in the 1970s, Toyota was well positioned in the North American market. Toyota already had small, fuel-efficient vehicles to sell to consumers who now paid significantly higher prices for fuel.

Realizing that this trend for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars would continue, Toyota acquired manufacturers like Hino Motors, Nippondenso, and Daihatsu Motor and folded them into the Toyota business model. By the end of the 1990s, the Japanese powerhouse had produced more than 100 million vehicles for export.

In a bid to compete with luxury brands BMW and Mercedes, Toyota marketed its brand of luxury by launching Lexus. Later, when the hybrid craze began, Toyota introduced the Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. Partnerships and acquisitions followed until 2008 when Toyota surpassed General Motors in vehicle production for the first time.

Like other successful models for global marketing, Toyota built a strong, recognizable brand and then customized it to meet local market needs. Using international manufacturing techniques backed by an uncompromising branding model, the company became the world's best-selling car manufacturer.

Today, the lessons learned by these forerunners of global marketing, coupled with the instantaneous communications and visual reach of the internet, has helped many more companies successfully market their brand abroad.

Being successful requires experience in the international markets, a strong visual brand that crosses language barriers, strict business processes, and a flexible marketing team willing to adapt prices and promotions within regional markets.
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Seven Companies That Paved the Way for Global Marketing

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It may seem perfectly normal today to see a sign for Coca-Cola or a Toyota vehicle when you travel abroad, but that hasn't always been the case. Before instant communication was as simple as a phone call, email or text, global marketing was much more challenging.

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This graphic is a perfect quick overview of things to consider before you want to globalize your organization

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I felt this was just a fun graphic to include about diversity in the workplace, I agree with its message that diversity can be very powerful and advantageous for an organization

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This wiki page about Henri Fayol sparked my interest because I was able to learn more about him and his life and how that intertwined into modern management

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Henri Fayol (29 July 1841 - 19 November 1925) was a French mining engineer, mining executive, author and director of mines who developed a general theory of business administration that is often called Fayolism. He and his colleagues developed this theory independently of scientific management but roughly contemporaneously. Like his contemporary Frederick Winslow Taylor, he is widely acknowledged as a founder of modern management methods.

Fayol was born in 1842 in a suburb of Constantinople (now Istanbul). His father (an engineer) was in the military at the time and was appointed superintendent of works to build Galata Bridge, which bridged the Golden Horn. The family returned to France in 1847, where Fayol graduated from the mining academy " École Nationale Supérieure des Mines" in Saint-Étienne in 1860.

That same year, aged 19, Fayol started working at the mining company named " Compagnie de Commentry-Fourchambault-Decazeville" in Commentry, in the Auvergne region. He was hired by Stéphane Mony, who had decided to hire the best engineers from the Saint-Étienne Mining School, and Fayol joined the firm as an engineer and trainee manager. Mony made Fayol his protégé, and Fayol succeeded him as manager of the Commentry mine and eventually as managing director of Commentry-Fourchambault and Decazeville.

During his time at the mine, he studied the causes of underground fires, how to prevent them, how to fight them, how to reclaim mining areas that had been burned, and developed a knowledge of the structure of the basin. In 1888 he was promoted to managing director. During his time as director, he made changes to improve the working situations in the mines, such as allowing employees to work in teams, and changing the division of labor. Later, more mines were added to his duties.

In 1900 Fayol became a member of the Comité Central des Houillères de France, member of the board of the Comité des forges and administrator of the Société de Commentry, Fourchambault et Decazeville. Eventually, the board decided to abandon its iron and steel business and the coal mines. They chose Henri Fayol to oversee this as the new managing director. Upon receiving the position, Fayol presented the board with a plan to restore the firm. The board accepted the proposal. At that time, the company was at the verge of bankruptcy. With rich and broad administrative experience, Fayol contributed a lot in turning the fortune of the company. When he retired in 1918, the company was financially strong and one of the largest industrial combines in Europe.

Based largely on his own management experience, he developed his concept of administration. In 1916 he promoted his ideas in Administration Industrielle et Générale, at about the same time as Frederick Winslow Taylor published his Principles of Scientific Management. After his retirement he became the Director of the Centre of Administrative Studies in Paris.

Fayol's work became more generally known with the 1949 publication of "General and industrial administration", the English translation of the 1916 work "Administration industrielle et générale". In this work Fayol presented his theory of management, known as Fayolism. Before that Fayol had written several articles on mining engineering, starting in the 1870s, and some preliminary papers on administration.

Mining engineering

Starting in the 1870s, Fayol wrote a series of articles on mining subjects, such as on the spontaneous heating of coal (1879), the formation of coal beds (1887), the sedimentation of the Commentry, and on plant fossils (1890).

His first articles were published in the French Bulletin de la Société de l'Industrie minérale, and beginning in the early 1880s in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.

Fayol's work was one of the first comprehensive statements of a general theory of management. He proposed that there were six types of organisational activity, including management as one of these, five primary functions of management and fourteen principles of management.

Types of organisational activity

Fayol divided the range of activities undertaken within an industrial undertaking into six types:

technical activities

commercial activities

financial activities

security activities

accounting activities, and

managerial activities.

Functions of management

In his original work, Administration industrielle et générale; prévoyance, organisation, directing, coordination, controle, five primary functions were identified:

The control function, from the French contrôler, is used in the sense that a manager must receive feedback about a process in order to make necessary adjustments and must analyze the deviations. Lately scholars of management combined the directing and coordinating function into one leading function.

Principles of management

1. Division of work - In practice, employees are specialized in different areas and they have different skills. Different levels of expertise can be distinguished within the knowledge areas (from generalist to specialist). Personal and professional developments support this. According to Henri Fayol specialization promotes efficiency of the workforce and increases productivity. In addition, the specialization of the workforce increases their accuracy and speed. This management principle of the 14 principles of management is applicable to both technical and managerial activities.

2. Authority and Responsibility - According to Henri Fayol, the accompanying power or authority gives the management the right to give orders to the subordinates.

3. Discipline - This principle is about obedience. It is often a part of the core values of a mission and vision in the form of good conduct and respectful interactions.

4. Unity of command - Every employee should receive orders from only one superior or behalf of the superior.

5. Unity of direction - Each group of organisational activities that have the same objective should be directed by one manager using one plan for achievement of one common goal.

6. Subordination of Individual Interest to General Interest - The interests of any one employee or group of employees should not take precedence over the interests of the organisation as a whole.

7. Remuneration - All Workers must be paid a fair wage for their services. The wages paid must be as per a certain standard of living to the employee at the same time it is within the paying capacity of the company.

8. Centralization and Decentralization - This refers to the degree to which subordinates are involved in decision making.

9. Scalar chain - The line of authority from top management to the lowest ranks represents the scalar chain. Communications should follow this chain. However if someone needs to communicate some other person in emergency he/she might use "Gang Plank". ≤Fayol suggested the concept of 'Gang Plank' to avoid delays and allow direct communication between two subordinates at the same level.≥

10. Order - this principle is concerned with systematic arrangement of men, machine, material etc. There should be a specific place for every employee in an organization. That is 'a place for everything (people) and everything has a place'.

11. Equity - All the employees in the organization must be treated equally with respect to the justice and kindliness.

12. Stability of tenure of personnel - High employee turnover is inefficient. Management should provide orderly personnel planning and ensure that replacements are available to fill vacancies.

13. Initiative - Employees who are allowed to originate and carry out plans will exert high levels of effort.

14. Esprit de corps - Promoting team spirit will build harmony and unity within the organization.

Some Fayolian principles still influence some contemporary management theories to a certain degree.

Books, translated

IN 1930, Industrial and General Administration. Translated by J.A. Coubrough, London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.

1949. General and Industrial Management. Translated by C. Storrs, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London.

Articles, translated, a selection

1900. "Henri Fayol addressed his colleagues in the mineral industry 23 June 1900." Translated by J.A. Coubrough. In: Fayol (1930) Industrial and General Administration. pp. 79-81 (Republished in: Wren, Bedeian & Breeze, (2002) "The foundations of Henri Fayol's administrative theory")

1909. "L'exposee des principles generaux d'administration". Translated by J.D Breeze. published in: Daniel A. Wren, Arthur G. Bedeian, John D. Breeze, (2002) "The foundations of Henri Fayol's administrative theory", Management Decision, Vol. 40 Iss: 9, pp. 906 - 918

1923. "The administrative theory in the state". Translated by S. Greer. In: Gulick, L. and Urwick. L. Eds. (1937) Papers on the Science of Administration, Institute of Public Administration. New York. pp. 99-114

1. ^ Morgen Witzel (2003). Fifty key figures in management. Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-36977-0, p.96.

2. ^ Wren, D.A. (2001). "Henri Fayol as a strategist: a nineteenth century corporate turnaround". Management Decision. 39 (6): 475-487. doi:10.1108/EUM0000000005565.

3. ^ Wood, John C.; Wood, Michael C. (2002), Henri Fayol: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-24818-1

4. ^ Voxted, S., "100 years of Henri Fayol", Management Revue, Volume 28, No. 2 (2017), pp. 256-274, accessed 14 February 2021

5. ^ Daniel A. Wren, Arthur G. Bedeian, John D. Breeze, (2002) "The foundations of Henri Fayol's administrative theory", Management Decision, Vol. 40 Iss: 9, pp.906 - 918 state: "It was not until the Storr's translation that Fayol's (1949) Administration Industrielle et Générale reached a wider audience, especially in the USA and established Fayol as a major authority on management."

6. ^ The first English translation by J.A. Coubrough in 1930 didn't have that much impact. The first translation in German was published around the same time in 1929.

7. ^ Derek Salman Pugh, David John Hickson (2007) Great Writers on Organizations: The Third Omnibus Edition, p.144

8. ^ Fayol, Henri (1917), Administration industrielle et générale; prévoyance, organisation, commandement, coordination, controle (in French), Paris, H. Dunod et E. Pinat, OCLC 40224931

9. ^ Pryor, J.L.; Guthrie, C. (2010). "The private life of Henri Fayol and his motivation to build a management science". Journal of Management History.

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Henri Fayol (29 July 1841 - 19 November 1925) was a French mining engineer, mining executive, author and director of mines who developed a general theory of business administration that is often called Fayolism. He and his colleagues developed this theory independently of scientific management but roughly contemporaneously.

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I liked this blog post because it shared some companies that have stand up cultures. I feel this post allowed me to learn about a variety of organizations with different types of cultures, yet all are still good

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Organizational culture is a hot topic these days, and for good reason. With big names like Google and Facebook setting examples for what a healthy company culture looks like, many others are following suit and fostering cultures that align with their values and needs. Here are 6 organizational culture examples worth following!

Read on to see what makes these corporations and startups alike great places to work.

1. L.L. Bean

Ranked in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For, L.L. Bean's dedication to customers through offerings like lifetime warranties and free shipping is reflected in its internal culture. The 103-year-old retail company with a focus on outdoor apparel has a low turnover rate of just 3%, and employees enjoy perks like discounted gym memberships, employee discounts, paid time off for volunteering and even college tuition reimbursement.

Those aren't the only benefits of working at L.L. Bean, though. The company sponsors excursions like kayaking and camping for the whole team, and employees can even borrow outdoor gear and take advantage of camping around Rangeley Lake, where HQ is based, with their families.

Management-wise, L.L. Bean takes care of the team by having regular one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss career development and offering regular classes and workshops. Their "Bean's Best" program praises teammates who go the extra mile with an annual celebration, and teammates acknowledge one another through peer recognition programs.

Why we love it: As L.L. Bean wrote in its culture deck, "Every employee is the most important ever in this company." That's a great mindset to have, which is why it ranks first amongst our organizational culture examples.

2. Adobe

Also earning a spot in Fortune's Top 100, Adobe offers perks like discounted gym memberships and tuition reimbursement, plus paid sabbatical and subsidies for commuters. Employees even receive patents for their ideas and are awarded bonuses for those creations at an annual banquet. Product releases are celebrated with events and recognition for the teammates responsible with rewards like bonuses and swag.

What really sets Adobe apart, though, is how it values communication across the company between departments. Regular team events, like a speed networking event, encourage employees to get to know one another. A company-wide community for LGBTQ employees is a place for members of those communities to socialize and have discussions, and several Adobe employees even contributed videos to the popular "It Gets Better" movement aimed toward LGBTQ teens.

Why we love it: Adobe not only encourages creativity and communication, it rewards and provides outlets for them.

3. DogVacay
Photo courtesy of DogVacay
The "Airbnb for dogs," DogVacay, is a startup with an office culture any animal lover would covet. Every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day, and the team regularly volunteers at a local animal shelter. Frequent happy hours, karaoke nights and catered lunches are nice added bonuses, plus HQ is just a few minutes from the beaches of Santa Monica. Employees even have access to free rental bikes to take out for a spin when they need to take a break and move around.

Check out our exclusive interview with DogVacay's Office Manager for more details on how they build the DogVacay company culture.

As head of communications Rachael King told us: "Our office culture is all about creativity and collaboration, and our open floor plan and fun decor provide a pleasing and comfortable workspace for our teams to work together. DogVacay's employees come from all different backgrounds, which contributes to our unique and open office culture, but we all have one important thing in common: our love of dogs!"

Why we love it: Besides the dogs, it's a playful environment with passionate people working toward a cause the whole team believes in. Plus, the dogs.

4. Wrike

Wrike is another company that puts a great deal of emphasis on hiring for culture, which is likely why it has glowing reviews on Glassdoor and was named one of the best places to work by the San Francisco Business Times. The project management software company does cross-team interviews to ensure a good fit and regularly blogs about culture. The entire team even got to take a trip to Mexico for four days of team-building and learning.

Creativity and feedback are encouraged at Wrike, where the attitude is "if you think it's a good idea, go for it." The team also makes a point of celebrating successes. As founder and CEO Andrew Filev tells Enplug:

"We always make sure to take the time to celebrate each other's wins. In sales, it's obvious: closing a big deal means bringing in money for the company. But other teams have different measures of success and we are careful to recognize those too," and that includes personal accomplishments.

Why we love it: Wrike gives employees the autonomy to create a culture they love. Andrew's advice on doing just that: "Make sure your employees know that being a great workplace is one of your goals as a business leader. They'll be more than happy to help you create it." Well said!

5. Zappos

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh once famously said, "Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes." It also just happens to be famous for its wonderful (and sometimes wacky) culture. Amongst these six organizational culture examples, Zappos is probably the best-known. Zappos hires for culture first, treats employees to a three-day culture camp training event, and regularly features employee contributors in a culture series for its blog.

In fact, the company is so focused on culture that it has its own culture book, which has hundreds of unedited testimonials from employees and is updated every year. Their core values are clearly defined and include tenets like delivering customers "wow" through service, embracing and driving change, and creating fun and "a little weirdness" in the office.

Managers are responsible for creating career paths within their departments for all employees, with an emphasis on those who excel. Zappos even offers new hires $2,000 and up to quit if they feel the job isn't right for them.

Why we love it: Few companies manage to embrace individuality (or "weirdness") as well as Zappos does, and the company's unapologetic commitment to a culture-first attitude ensures that never changes.

6. Quora

Quora is all about learning, conversation, and discovery. So it only makes sense, then, that the question-and-answer website's employees are constantly learning and improving. At Quora, new hires are paired with mentors, and by the end of the first week, engineers and designers are reviewing one another's code and deploying their creations.

In fact, continuous deployment-where new code is shipped out constantly-is the norm. Constant feedback from peers helps ensure the code keeps improving, and it helps employees learn from one another. Employees get regular one-on-ones with managers starting from day one, and everyone on the team has the chance to work with one another as teams vary by project.

Quora employees are also treated regularly to yoga sessions, free meals and company swag, and movie nights and morale events keep the team happy and engaged. On "one-hour project days," everyone on the team spends their day doing a set list of tasks-like bug fixes-that can each be accomplished within an hour. The team races to complete each task, listening to music all the time, and celebrating at the end.

Why we love it: Quora's philosophy of continually learning and improving is right in line with their product, meaning employees always have the chance to take on new and exciting challenges.

These organizational culture examples are just the beginning. Download our FREE eBook, the Company Culture Cookbook, with 33 can't-fail recipes for a happier and more productive team!
Photo "Visit to the Zappos office": (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda blog.networksolutions.com
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Enplug digital signage software was co-founded by CEO Nanxi Liu and CTO Tina Denuit-Wojcik in 2012 to enable organizations to use customized real-time streaming content to create engaging external and internal communications.

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6 Organizational Culture Examples Worth Following

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Organizational culture is a hot topic these days, and for good reason. With big names like Google and Facebook setting examples for what a healthy company culture looks like, many others are following suit and fostering cultures that align with their values and needs. Here... Read More

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This graphic I felt was perfect for covering topics involved in an organizations culture

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I found this article to be a good added source as it gave multiple real life examples of good ethical decisions made by companies

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10 Great Examples of Ethical Decision Making In Business

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Positive Ethical Decisions in Business Can Be Hugely Beneficial for Your Company Image, Employees & Profits. This Report Uncovers The Reality

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I liked this graphic because it was a good reference back on the levels of managers and what type of job would fall into each level