Winning Without Competition: How to Break Out of a Commodity ...

Winning Without Competition: How to 

Break Out of a Commodity Market 

An Educational Leadership Series for Precast 

Concrete Company Strategic Leaders 

Pamphlet 5 

Strategic Alignment: Creating 

Differentiation in Fact versus in Theory 

Created for the Precast Concrete Institute by Plantes 

Company, a strategic marketing consultancy. © 2001 

Plantes Company, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Pamphlet #5 Page 183

Strategic Alignment: Creating Differentiation in Fact 

versus in Theory 

Key Messages 

• Strategy without execution is a plan that sits on a shelf, at least until next year. 

Communication of the competitive strategy and alignment of departmental 

and team actions to the strategy is required to create the desired 

differentiation. 

• Annual plans are the current year execution of strategies; they are the 

itineraries for attaining the organization’s strategic goals and vision. 

• The marketing-sales plan, operational plan, leadership plan, and financial 

plan must be aligned with one another. 

• Process improvement that is not linked to creating a meaningful point of 

distinction from the competition is a feel-good exercise that will help the 

bottom line in the short term, but is unlikely to create a meaningful shift in 

your market position. 

• The Balanced Score Card is a useful tool for measuring whether strategy is 

being executed and whether the strategy is having its anticipated effect on key 

performance measures. Linking individual and process objectives to balanced 

score card measures is a critical part of alignment. 

• The leadership team plan is also a critical part of alignment. It will insure that 

the organization creates future leaders and that today’s leaders are doing the 

work only they can do: setting direction and creating change to align the 

organization to create its desired future. 

• Systematic review of market changes will help the organization evolve its 

competitive strategy so as to maintain differentiation. A marketing 

department plays a critical role in this process. 

• There are two types of marketing – strategic and tactical. Tactical marketing 

decisions, e.g., pricing and advertising are – for the most part – the domain of 

the marketing professional, working in collaboration with the Sales 

Department. Strategic marketing decisions, e.g., competitive and growth 

strategy decisions, must rest with the entire leadership team. The Marketing 

Department creates the strategic analysis used by the leadership team to both 

identify strategic issues and opportunities and define new strategies. 

• Ignoring needed marketing activities is like driving without being able to see 

beyond two feet. Organizations without strong marketing skills are generally 

unfocused and reactive. 

• Sales and Marketing serve different roles in a company. There is great danger 

in combining the two roles in the same person as sales requirements always 

win out over marketing. Sales is the most expensive resource in the company. 

You must therefore minimize how much time is spent on non-selling 

activities. Don’t ask sales people to do Marketing’s work. 


Introduction 

One of the greatest failures of strategic planning is the lack of execution on the 

other side of planning. Great ideas and newfound desire for strong leadership 

emerge from strategy retreats, only to be left to notebooks and memories a few 

months later. Sound familiar? A trip plan without an accompanying itinerary is 

often to blame. If we plan to travel to Phoenix, but follow whatever roads 

promise fun (the organizational equivalent of sales and margin), the probability 

we will get to Phoenix is very remote. 

Act Three of the change process is about alignment: changing the work of the 

organization and changing how people work with one another in order to “fit” the 

organization and its activities to the new competitive strategy. This work is the 

change process. Acts One and Two have, for all intents and purposes, been 

preparation for change, the creation of the "plan" so to speak. Absent action, 

there is no change. 

Change becomes part of daily work when leadership links annual planning and 

other key decisions about the organization to the new strategies. For example, a 

company will not start selling to owners in the absence of sales force training and 

changes in sales incentives. Marketing to owners will also be needed for the sales 

force to succeed in their initial efforts. Part of the change for companies in 

commodity markets will be to introduce marketing skills and philosophies into 

the company. And, often times, changes in the culture of the organization are 

needed to better support the new strategies. For example, if an organization 

wants to become more customer-driven, the people in the organization need to 

first learn to listen to one another internally. Relationships outside the company 

usually mirror relationships inside. If people fail to listen internally there is 

typically a failure to listen externally. 

Change occurs in two directions: the work people do and how they do this work. 

Pamphlet Five addresses changing the work of the organization. Pamphlets Six 

and Seven address how work is done. Pamphlet Six discusses strategic 

leadership. Changes in the work people do and how they do their work come 

together in the presence of strong leadership. A strategic leader always uses 

today’s work to model desired behavior, to foster change and renewal, to 

maintain spirit and momentum, to help others know and fully use their gifts, and 

to reinforce an inspiring and meaningful vision. When leaders do this work, the 

vision becomes reality as the competitive strategy gets executed. 

Pamphlet Seven addresses culture change, i.e., changing how people work 

together. 

Align Everything 

The key principle to remember in executing change is that anything that is not 

consistent with the strategy will deter the success of your strategy. Everything. 


This includes your organizational structure, your measures, the processes you reengineer, 

measures and incentives, the types of people hired, job goals, how you 

lead. Everything. 

In fact, every organization with a new competitive strategy will face a moment of 

truth in which it needs to decide whether it was really serious about the 

competitive strategy or not. These moments of truth arise from a fundamental 

principle of markets: to gain leadership in one market segment requires you to 

not secure leadership in a segment with conflicting requirements for the 

organization. In the case of a health care products company, the president 

needed to sell a recently acquired company, recognizing that the acquisition was 

no longer consistent with the future strategy of the organization. In another 

example, a commercial sewing company walked away from a $1M medical sewing 

customer in order to have the resources to devote to its strategic market, fabric 

accessories for the power sports vehicle market. 

Whatever the moment of truth, they are tests of whether the organization has the 

resolve to execute strategy. You can be sure individuals in your organization will 

be looking at these tests to understand the real message about what’s important 

or not important. Therefore, when you face and resolve your moment of truth, 

communicate it broadly throughout the organization as to why you arrived at the 

decision and took the steps the strategy suggested. 

Alignment answers the following questions: 

• How do we create the differentiation in fact? 

~ What are the key processes that build the core competency and create the 

organization’s differentiation? 

~ What processes must I get "right" to meet minimum customer 

requirements to be considered? 

~ What process goals should we establish to achieve our key strategic goals? 

• How should we organize to manage and run the company on a daily basis to 

insure key processes achieve what we need them to achieve? 

• Do we need a marketing department? 

• How will we achieve our sales and margin goals? 

• What must we change in our key processes and other operational activity to 

support the sales-marketing plan and achieve process goals? 

• What partners do we need? 

• How will we measure success? 

• What must the leadership team accomplish working as a team to enhance the 

capacity of the organization to succeed? 

• Is our competitive strategy still aligned with the evolving market place and 

competitor dynamics? 

The first steps in the alignment plan will be obvious to you. But, clearly, 

alignment cannot be planned entirely in advance. Change becomes a process of 

being alert to where the organization is not in alignment with the strategy and 


then responding. The response brings things into alignment. At times, the 

response can include changing the strategy if the market place has changed and 

assumptions that supported the original business model no longer hold true. 

What you are essentially doing in Act Three is redesigning the organizational 

system from scratch, given its design (i.e., its purpose, vision, guiding principles, 

competitive strategies and strategic goals). (See Pamphlet Four for a description 

of these design parameters.) A systems view is critical in this work, as the 

success of the organization in achieving its aim will depend not just on the 

effectiveness of the strategy, but on how well your organization works as a 

system, as this will determine the success of execution. (See Pamphlet Two.) 

How Do We Create the Differentiation in Fact? 

The outcomes of any system are a perfect reflection of what the system was 

designed to accomplish. Beyond this, the first step to change is to acknowledge 

that you are accountable for any of the results you don’t like. The key to 

successful differentiation is not just the identification of ways to differentiate the 

firm that are meaningful to customers and that cannot be easily duplicated but to 

create this difference. The creation of differentiation (or the maintenance of 

differentiation) is accomplished by designing and operating key processes that 

are at the heart of differentiation. This is true whether the differentiation is in a 

product or service or the business model. And, if you lack the distinction you 

desire, you look first and foremost at how your processes are working. 

There are a number of steps to creating "process-based" differentiation: 

• Identify the key processes that create the differentiation, what I’ll refer to as 

strategic processes 

• Redesign or improve key processes to eliminate problems, create competitive 

advantage and secure differentiation 

• Create a culture of continuous improvement in processes 

• Deploy limited resources to redesign and improve processes that are at the 

heart of competitive victories and that promise financial payback 

• Create measures that will help you better understand how the organization is 

doing and better align individual and group activities to desired outcomes 

• Keep the leadership team focused on the unique role of leadership so that the 

operational agenda does not crowd out critical organizational change work 

Success in these steps depends on strong systems thinking skills throughout the 

leadership team and management ranks. (See Sidebar A: Systems Thinking) 

Why do we take a process focus? We do this for a number of reasons. 

• First, the organization is only as good as its underlying processes. They are at 

the heart of core competencies, customer value and competitive advantage. 


• Second, you can’t fix a problem by fixing the individual parts. You must look 

at the whole. This is because it’s the interaction of parts, not the parts 

themselves that define behavior and dictate outcomes in any system. If Sales 

keeps on selling more than the capacity of Operations, success will not be 

forthcoming. In fact, the recurring backlogs in an organization where Sales 

oversells will, in fact, set in motion reduced customer satisfaction that will 

eventually reduce the success of the selling organization. 

• Third, a process focus creates an empowered organization. It focuses 

managers and leaders on the work only managers and leaders can do, i.e., 

improving the interactions between the different processes and making sure 

processes are designed well. It is up to others, the "workers," to actually do 

the operational work of the processes. When leadership focuses on their 

unique roles as leaders and managers, the rest of the company’s productivity, 

morale and creativity increase. This is especially important because a key 

strategic leadership practice is enabling others to do their best. Doing 

people’s work versus removing barriers that undermine their ability to do 

their work creates credibility as a leader. 

• Finally, a process focus lets you eliminate problems versus treat their 

symptoms. There is entirely too much time spent in organizations today 

treating the symptoms of problems as opposed to eliminating them through 

process improvement and process redesign. 

About Processes 

With systems thinking, we begin to look at the organization as a series of 

processes that interact, dramatically affecting the results of the organization. A 

process is a series of cross-functional actions that produces a result of value to 

someone else in the organization, the customer or the ultimate end-user. 

Processes are often thought of as fairly linear (e.g., the creation of forms, 

erection, measurement of financial outcomes). In fact, there are many critical 

processes that are without clear inputs, flows or outputs. For example, 

leadership is a process as is building strategic alliances with a key customer or 

supplier. 

There are two types of processes: operational processes and management or 

administrative processes. Operational processes deal with what works gets done 

to produce the organization’s output and what jobs and actions are required to 

support the effort of getting the work done. The external customers provide 

measures of the effectiveness of operational processes. Examples of operational 

processes would include: marketing to owners; getting the order; finalizing the 

design; developing a labor force; developing subs; making the structure. Note 

that this is a very different view of the organization than the traditional silos of 

sales and marketing, administration, purchasing, project management and onsite 

construction. From a strategic leadership perspective, processes almost 

always cut across different functions. 


Management and administrative processes affect how the work gets done. 

Typically, each management or administrative process serves multiple 

operational processes. The measurement of process success is whether it 

provides internal customers with what they need to best conduct the operational 

processes, i.e., to meet customer needs and create differentiation for the 

company’s offerings. Examples of management processes would include: 

evaluation of performance; measurement of financial outcomes; insuring 

compliance with OSHA regulations. 

There are many "lens" for looking at processes. A narrow but deep view lets us 

see micro processes, e.g., pouring the concrete and mixing the concrete. Macro 

processes reflect a broad lens, e.g., manufacturing structural components. Macro 

processes are also called, "organizational subsystems," as they contain multiple 

processes. 

The key steps for aligning processes to execute the competitive strategy include 

the following: 

• Make sure that your competitive strategy is clear and well understood within 

the organization. 

• Diagram the flow of work by identifying the subprocesses and then build up 

into the macro processes, both linear work flow and non-work flow processes. 

• Determine the most important macro processes to focus on, i.e., those that are 

critical issues affecting your competitiveness or are a source of existing or 

potential differentiation. 

• Decide whether process improvement or redesign will be used to enhance 

process outcomes and prioritize projects of each type. The improvement and 

redesign projects with the highest priority become key objectives in the 

operational plan for the organization, which will be discussed below. In this 

way, strategy is driving operational change initiatives. 

Entire books are written about how to do process improvement and process 

redesign. Therefore, it is not the intent of this pamphlet to teach process 

improvement. Rather, we will focus on how to approach process improvement in 

a way that creates alignment of the organization to its competitive strategy. 

Identifying Strategic Processes 

Critical processes refer to the 3-5 key macro level processes that, when 

successfully designed and managed, do the most to differentiate your company’s 

offerings and secure a market leadership position. Critical processes let you 

execute the firm’s competitive strategy effectively and efficiently. They are at the 

heart of competitive advantage. 

The key attributes of critical processes include: 

• They are few in number. 


• They are linked horizontally and vertically. 

• They can be diagrammed in terms of their interaction with other parts of the 

organization. 

• They can be measured—although not always easily measured. 

• They can be improved. 

• They have a major impact on differentiation of the firm, customer value, 

return on assets and organizational goals. 

The first step in process improvement is to identify the macro processes of the 

organization (Chart One: Macro Process View of a Precast Company gives an 

example). One approach to selecting critical processes from this list is to 

categorize each macro process into one of the following categories of importance: 

• Identity: It serves a major role in creating the desired differentiation of your 

company. 

• Priority: It meets a customer requirement and strongly influences how well 

identity processes are carried out and how the firm stands versus the 

competition. 

• Background: It supports other processes; many management processes fall 

here. 

• Mandated: It is required by, for example, government officials. 

• Folklore: These are processes that have been in place in the past, but are not 

necessarily needed today. 

Chart Two: Example of the Process Salience of Different PC-PS Companies shows 

an example of process categorization for two precast firms, each with very 

different competitive strategies. (For more information on this topic, see Keen, 

whose work guided the thoughts in this section.) 

Identity and priority processes, or those that could be identity and priority 

processes, become the strategic processes for the organization. Organizations 

should focus improvement and redesign efforts on background processes only if 

they are becoming, or could become, a priority process. Mandated processes take 

on strategic important if changing them has a major positive impact on the 

profitability of the firm. In general, background processes do not pass this test. 

Any folklore process should be removed. 

After categorizing processes, the organization must select which critical processes 

it wants to improve or redesign so as to achieve greater success. The key to doing 

this is to determine which critical processes of the organization already perform 

above average versus which perform at or below average. Because of limited 

resources, the organization may choose to monitor performance of critical 

processes with above average performance in order to maintain a lead. Any 

critical processes that are at or below the performance of other competitors, i.e., 

that are not best in class, must be improved or redesigned. 


What should you do about a process performing below the competition that is not 

a critical process? You should only improve or redesign the process if: 

• It will eventually become a customer requirement. 

• It could enhance your value to the customer and differentiation in customers’ 

eyes. 

• There is a financial payback to improving the process. 

Selecting processes to improve or redesign is at the heart of successful strategic 

leadership. All too often, process improvement resources are focused on 

processes that are not identity processes. As a result, organizations "get better," 

but they don’t necessarily create differentiation, which is the key to breaking out 

of a commodity box. (See Pamphlet One). 

Redesign or Improvement? 

The next critical decision by the leadership and departmental team is to identify 

whether process improvement or process redesign is needed. Often times both 

are used, as evidenced in Chart Three: Organizations Combine Process 

Redesigning and Improvement Efforts. Process improvement can be as simple as 

insuring that everyone uses the same process, i.e., that standardization around 

the process is created. Or, it can focus on incremental redesign of the process, 

e.g., insertion of an additional step (e.g., a phone call) to make sure plans are 

approved by the architect before the weekly manufacturing schedule is set. 

Process improvement is used when the current process works well, but you would 

like it to be better. 

Process redesign is used when: 

• A straightforward and identifiable process does not really exist. 

• The current process is entirely way too complex to be managed well. 

• Creating differentiation demands that the process produce significantly 

different outcomes. 

Both company factors and process factors enter into the decision on whether to 

improve or redesign. Company factors include: 

• Organizational leadership style 

• Business conditions 

• Type of change required 

• Commitment level to change 

• Organizational skills with regard to change and process improvement 

• What has worked effectively in the past 

• Willingness to engage in true strategic planning (vs. annual business 

planning) 


Process Factors include: 

• Extent of problem 

• Whether the problem is in the process or its containing system 

• Time frame before results are needed 

Process Improvement 

The focus of process improvement is to improve process outcomes incrementally. 

The key steps in process improvement are (Joiner): 

• Step One: Define the project, i.e., what problem are you trying to solve with 

what process. 

• Step Two: Understand in detail the process status quo—how it works, its 

effectiveness and what causes variations in its effectiveness. (See Sidebar B: 

Variation) 

• Step Three: Understand why the results of the process are what they are. 

• Step Four: Develop and try solutions that address deep causes of the 

problem. 

• Step Five: Evaluate the solutions, select one and create and evaluate plans to 

implement the solution. 

• Step Six: Maintain the gains by standardizing work methods of products. 

• Step Seven: Anticipate future improvement in order to preserve lessons from 

this effort. 

(See Appendix One for a more detailed description of these steps.) 

It is critical, while engaged in process redesign, to understand not just what’s 

going on with the process but how the process interacts with the rest of the 

organization. Suppose your organization is trying to speed up the completion of 

shop floor drawings. Many teams would jump immediately at the idea of getting 

architect approvals earlier. But, there are many ways to increase speed besides 

increasing the speed of the architect’s approval. And, there are many aspects of 

shop floor drawings an organization needs to be concerned about beyond speed, 

e.g., the cost to complete the drawings, the efficiency of the design for 

manufacturability and the accuracy of the design. 

Everyone must understand the competitive strategy so that in designing changes 

to increase speed, you do not impair other process dimensions that are also 

critical to your competitive position, i.e., those that drive your differentiation or 

are required for consideration in the marketplace. This is why systems thinking 


is so important. It prevents improving part of the organization at the expense of 

other parts of the organization. 

Team Exercise: Process Improvement 

Appendix Two provides an exercise you can follow to develop a feel for process 

improvement. After competing the exercise, answer the following questions: 

• Do we have a process orientation in our company? If not, should we? 

• Which of our processes need to be improved? If we could really improve 

these, would it make us more competitive or profitable? Would it create 

differentiation from our competition? 

• Are we willing to commit resources to process improvement? 

• Do we need any outside help to be more effective in process improvement? 

Process Redesign 

Organizations succeed by doing the right things right, not just doing things right. 

Redesign is about doing the right things; process improvement is about doing 

things right. Process redesign is very sophisticated work. It’s not done overnight 

with a simple six-step process. It requires careful understanding of the current 

process and deep insights into the reasons today’s outcomes are what they are. 

Nevertheless, process redesign has tremendous opportunities for payback. 

Process redesign dissolves the problem, i.e., the problem no longer appears. It 

differs from fixing the process, which handles a problem better. Fixing modifies 

the existing system. It removes what’s wrong by adding, deleting or modifying a 

step in the existing system. Redesigning, on the other hand, starts with a blank 

sheet of paper. 

Process redesign is based on the following concepts: 

• Each system is well designed to act as it behaves. In other words, you get 

exactly what your process or system was designed to create. 

• Each person in the system is acting rationally within the context of the 

system. 

• Often times the limitations of the system are defined by what’s going on 

around the system, i.e., in the containing system. The most important 

limitations may not be in the system itself. 

• To change a system’s outcomes, behavior and operation, you need to change: 

~ Its structure (i.e., what are the parts and how are they organized) 

~ Its motivations (i.e., incentives, rewards and beliefs, why participants do 

as they do and who benefits from current behaviors and why) 

~ Its key processes (i.e., how the work gets done) 


~ Its function (i.e., what work gets done, in other words, what is a system’s 

intended output) 

Or, you must influence the containing system (e.g., other suppliers or general 

contractors) to work more in the favor of the system. 

Process redesign work is focused on identifying all the characteristics of the 

system that create the undesired and desired characteristics of the current system 

or process. You won’t be able to do this work without a deep understanding of 

the motivations and beliefs that drive how people work and relate to one another 

in your organization. You need to get at different dimensions of motivation, how 

they operate within the system and why they produce the system outcomes that 

occur. This work also what lets you understand the nature of culture change 

that’s needed. (See Pamphlet Seven.) 

Team Exercise: Process Redesign 

To get a feel for process redesign, discuss the following questions about shop 

floor drawing approval: 

• Where is speed of approval not an issue? 

~ In what kinds of projects? 

~ With regard to what kinds of suppliers/subs? 

~ In what kinds of roles? 

• Who holds the power to affect speed of approval and why do they delay? 

~ Who really drives when things get done and why is this person in the 

driver’s seat? 

~ Who can delay approval and why is it in their interest to do so? 

• What scope of services would lead us to be in charge of approvals? 

• What is it about our overall system that would make delays on approval 

irrelevant to meeting customer erection dates? 

• How could we hand the design off to those in charge of approvals? How could 

we eliminate the need for approvals? 

• Who benefits from the current system? Who would be concerned if it 

changed significantly? 

You should engage in process redesign when: 

• No process is in place 

• Significant market changes are occurring 

• The process spreads across multiple locations/business units 

• There is high urgency to fix/improve this part of your business for cost or 

customer satisfaction reasons or to create competitive differentiation 

• There are several problems and/or several root causes of the problem 

Chart Four: Which Improvement Approach to Use? provides a useful tool for 

deciding between process improvement and redesign. 


The logic for process redesign work is similar to that for the 7-Step improvement 

process, but the steps embrace multiple problems and causes. The steps are: 

• Plan 

~ Identify desired outcomes and measures of process 

~ Create the "as is" process map. Take baseline measurements and identify 

process "disconnects," i.e., missing, illogical or redundant steps or flawed 

logic 

~ Theorize and test ways to stratify where problems appear 

~ Theorize and test causes of problems 

• Do 

~ Pretend you are starting from scratch. How would you (ideally) organize 

this process to eliminate problems? 

~ Seek broad-based feedback on one or more "should" designs and select 

and modify "should" process map accordingly. Use evaluation criteria to 

choose among options 

• Check 

~ Does new process offer improvement over basement measurement? 

• Act 

~ "Institutionalize" the new process 

- Educate 

- Standardize 

- Establish improvement goals and manage 

As you envision a redesign, it is important to keep the following principles in 

mind: 

• Eliminate waste 

• Simplify 

• Create alternate paths when a uniform approach will not work 

• Increase speed (establish concurrent activities wherever possible vs. linear, 

sequenced activities). 

• Use technology when it adds value 

Team Exercise: Process Redesign, continued 

Appendix Three provides a process redesign exercise. After completing the 

process redesign exercise, discuss the following questions as a team: 

• Are there processes that should be completely redefined from the start if we 

want to genuinely execute our competitive strategy? 

• What would be the benefit of doing this? 

• How can we get started? 

Leadership’s Role in Process Improvement and Redesign 


The leadership team has a very strong and defined role in certain elements of 

process alignment and a very weak role in others (See Chart Five: Senior 

Management’s Role in Process Edge). They take the lead in defining the critical 

processes in the context of competitive strategy and creating the idealized overall 

design of the organization (i.e., the organizational chart). It’s also their role to 

make sure that the goals for different processes and the measures of success of 

those processes are aligned with the competitive strategy and the organization’s 

strategic goals. They also play a leading role in terms of major redesign efforts, 

while serving in a coaching role in continuous process improvement activities. 

While process improvement is the work of lower level management and the 

workers themselves, the leadership team must also make sure improvement 

priorities are defined and resources are allocated to achieve desired 

improvements. 

Some leadership teams encourage their companies to adopt what’s called a 

continuous improvement philosophy. When a continuous improvement process 

is in place, every process in the organization is measured and improvements are 

made on a regular basis. The fundamental concept behind continuous 

improvement is that process improvement is for the benefit of the customer. The 

focus is on customers, where customers include both internal individuals as well 

as external customers. 

A process improvement focus insures that different parts of the organizations 

clearly understand who their internal and external customers are, their needs and 

expectations and the purpose and the desired output from their part of the 

organization. With a process improvement focus, individuals who are part of the 

process get feedback from customers and change in response to the customer’s 

needs and expectations. Jay Howell, a colleague, argues that the key philosophies 

of a process improvement focus include: 

• Performance is measured. Continuous improvement means that there is a 

long-term commitment to regularly measure and improve processes to 

produce outputs of high value. 

• Everyone is involved in improvement. Continuous improvement becomes the 

work of everyone in the organization as opposed to a defined or imposed 

management solution. This builds teamwork and creates an environment of 

trust and open communications. As a result, process improvement ideas are 

surfaced by everyone in the organization. 

• Leaders and others develop systems thinking skills. Organizations with 

continuous improvement philosophies help people in the organization think 

in new ways. The work of the organization is viewed not as a collection of 

fragmented production units, but rather as a whole focused on providing 

output that’s highly valued and differentiated in the eyes of the customer. A 

systems view replaces a focus on blaming individuals for problems with a 


desire to -- continually discovering new ways to improve the organization for 

the benefit of customers. 

It’s important to note that the process goals should always supercede functional 

goals because the process goals, especially processes that cut across functions, 

drive what the different functions or departments spend their time on. Rummler 

& Brache comment, "If we had to pick one of the three levels as the greatest area 

of opportunity for most organizations, it would be the process level. We are 

learning that it’s not enough to manage results. The way in which those results 

are achieved, i.e., the process, is also important. If we are achieving the results, 

we need to know why. If we are not achieving the results, we need to know why. 

In both cases to a great degree the answer lies in the processes." 

How should we organize to manage and run the company on a daily 

basis to insure key processes achieve what we need them to achieve? 

Organizational structure (the “white chart” that shows who reports to whom) is 

one of the strongest leverage points for aligning the organization to fit its 

strategies. It is critical to creating culture change and for getting people to focus 

on the right kind of work, performing to the right set of measures. After your 

strategy is designed and you understand the critical processes of your 

organization and its strategic goals, start with a blank sheet of paper and design 

the ideal organizational structure. Do not think at this stage about what people 

will fit where. All that can come later. It is always better to make decisions 

knowing what is ideal. (See Nadler) 

Many companies with a continuous quality improvement philosophy organize 

their company by process teams, instead of functions. This shift can be 

instrumental in creating more effective processes, as the new structure changes 

relationships and therefore culture. Nevertheless, changing organizational 

structure alone is not sufficient for creating strong processes. People also have to 

be willing to work collaboratively to make the processes work well. Chart Six: 

Collaboration vs. Cooperation shows the difference between organizations in 

which the functions only cooperate with each other versus those in which 

collaboration is present. What we see here is that collaboration eliminates, or 

significantly reduces problems, whereas cooperation causes problems to be 

shifted to another part of the organization, which then must absorb the cost 

associated with the problem. Absent collaborative cultures, organizational 

change often times does little to improve operational effectiveness. (See Sidebar 

C: Structure Affects, but Does Not alone Determine, Behavior.) 

Do You Need a Marketing Department? 

You would never consider asking the director of accounting in your firm to also 

run the plant. Yet, many precast companies either delegate marketing 

responsibility to the sales director or leave the market role unfilled. This is one of 


the biggest errors in your industry. Without marketing, your organization will 

remain operations driven and compete as a commodity supplier. 

Still not convinced? Let’s try it another way. In the absence of a marketing 

professional, the CEO and members of the leadership team “own” the marketing 

role. How effective are you at this job? 

Team Exercise: How Well is Marketing Being Done in your Organization? 

Complete the Job Description Questionnaire in Appendix Four independently 

and then summarize the individual answers to create a team response. On any 

line item where a number of respondents entered “No” under “Done Well” or 

“Done Regularly,” ask: 

• What are the implications of this gap? 

• How might we be a stronger company if we filled this gap? 

• What are the implications of asking sales or some other function to take on 

this role? 

• What is not getting done or not getting done as well? 

Then, looking collectively at the gaps, ask: 

• Would the investment in good marketing professionals be worth the return we 

would get from filling these gaps? 

What is Marketing? 

There are a number of definitions of marketing: 

• The activities of identifying, designing, promoting and delivering goods 

and services to customers – in exchange for money. 

• The discipline required to make decisions that maximize customer and 

company value, i.e.: 

• Product line and business scope 

• Growth strategy 

• Distribution strategy 

• Value proposition to customer that differentiates the company from 

its current and future competitors 

• Pricing 

• “Promotional” expenditures to ensure fiscal year sales and profit 

objectives are met 

• Defining market segments; understanding their needs; identifying what is 

required to meet the needs of “target” market segments (i.e., those of 

greatest priority to the firm); and communicating with members of the 

target segments. (Hiebing and Cooper) 

• Identifying the changes needed today to ensure success in tomorrow’s 

markets while attracting customers to today’s offering. 


Two types of marketing activities create strong financial and market place results. 

Tactical marketing focuses the organization on the target markets in which the 

company’s current goods and services can be sold most successfully. The 

purposes of tactical marketing activities are to: 

• Raise awareness of the company’s offering – a key driver of whether a 

company gets considered by potential customers. This then affects the 

company’s market share. 

• Enhance the image of the company in the target market customers’ eyes 

• Work with associates inside the company to insure current product lines (as 

opposed to individual orders) are as profitable as they can be. Product line 

extensions and cost reduction activities are examples of this work. The 

Marketing Department’s role in these activities is to insure products meet the 

needs of target markets. 

• Increase the sale force efficiency and effectiveness by leading them to the right 

target markets, profiling “desired customer” attributes, creating customer 

awareness and providing effective selling tools. 

Strategic marketing focuses on how markets, competitors and customers are 

changing and what the company needs to do differently to secure and maintain a 

leadership position. When David Packard argued, “Marketing is too important to 

leave to the marketing department,” he was talking about strategic marketing. 

The leadership team as a whole must “own” the company’s strategic decisions 

regarding where and how to compete and grow, and how to align operations to 

win in targeted markets – much as they own the financial performance of the 

company. The marketing department owns the “process” for identifying changes 

needed in the company and its strategies to enable it to remain competitive (i.e., 

new products, services and channels). The marketing department is also 

responsible for creating a strong marketing understanding process. (In this 

sense, Marketing is like the finance department. They both oversee a process of 

collecting and interpreting data and insuring it is used in company decisions. 

Finance focuses on financial and operational information and marketing focuses 

on market information.) But the actual strategic decisions remain the leadership 

team’s responsibility. 

Chart Seven: Tactical vs. Strategic Marketing lists the significant tactical and 

strategic marketing activities/decisions. One way to think about these differences 

is to think of tactical marketing as “inside to the outside,” i.e., where to focus the 

company today within the broader market, and strategic marketing as “outside to 

the inside,” i.e., what do market changes imply for how the company must 

change? The role of the marketing department in the context of the overall 

company is summarized in Chart Eight: The Marketing Department’s Role. 

Sales and Marketing Are as Different as Precast and Wood 

Technologies 

Asking the Sales Department to take on the marketing role will not close the 

marketing gap. Sales serves a very different role in the company than Marketing. 


Their role is to represent the company to the customer and secure orders. Sales 

effectiveness is driven by: 

• Focusing on the right potential customer 

• Understanding the customer’s needs 

• Showing how the company’s offerings can best address the customer’s needs 

• Supporting the customer through issues and questions that arise in the buying 

process prior to sign off to the project manager 

• Developing a trusting and open relationship with ongoing buyers 

Marketing and Sales are involved in the selling process at different stages. 

Marketing’s influence ends before the order is won. The objectives of Marketing 

are to: 

• Make sure the company produces products and services that customers want. 

• Create awareness of the company and the benefits of its 

technologies/offerings. 

• Help the company get considered – i.e., encourage a customer to seek 

information from the sales rep or company. 

• Create a favorable company image in the customer’s mind. 

The difference between sales and marketing is like the difference between 

planting a field and harvesting the crop. Marketing professionals plant the field. 

They create awareness about the company among potential customers and then 

direct sales representatives to the markets and channels where they can be most 

successful. (This is tactical marketing.) Marketing also plays a key role in 

making the company more attractive to potential matches in the future. (This is 

strategic marketing.) Sales makes the matches, i.e., they harvest the rich crop 

that marketing (and operations) have helped create. Chart Nine describes the 

different perspectives of sales and marketing as a result of their different roles. 

Different roles demand different skills. As a result, different types of people are 

generally attracted to sales and marketing roles. Sales people have high empathy 

and a keen need to win frequently and regularly. Outgoing in personality, they 

are comfortable developing relationships. They “put themselves up for rejection” 

daily, as long as the prospect for a victory exists. Like hunters in a difficult 

jungle, effective salespeople are independent, self-motivated and untiring. 

Marketing people work as much on the “intellectual” side as on the “relationship” 

side of issues. They love a tough intellectual challenge and, while oftentimes 

people-oriented, they often see the problem as more engaging than the people. 

They would either be the organizers of a safari or the environmentalists making 

sure the jungle ecology is healthy. Relative to Sales, they enjoy working on things 

with a longer time frame. A good marketing person is excellent working “across” 

the organization, i.e., with different functions of the company. 

There is some overlap in skills. Marketing people must be good at selling ideas. 

And, a great consultative salesperson bringing customized project solutions to 

one customer is not unlike marketing people who do this type of work for target 


markets as a whole versus for an individual customer. Making good decisions for 

an entire target market demands the marketing person have outstanding 

analytical and interviewing skills and be able to make insightful business 

decisions involving difficult trade-offs. Many CEO’s argue that Marketing is the 

best training ground for general management. Chart Ten outlines a comparison 

of duties and qualifications for sales and marketing professionals. 

Sales Can’t Do Marketing Well 

Three problems arise when a company uses the sales role to do the marketing 

role: 

• It is very expensive. 

• Sales will not get the work done on time – or done at all. 

• When Sales takes on marketing activities, they are a biased source of 

information. 

It is very expensive. 

From an opportunity cost perspective, selling resources are the most expensive in 

your organization. For every hour the sales organization is diverted from direct 

selling activities (i.e., getting the company considered, overseeing the internal 

process for developing a proposal that is high value for the customer and the 

company, winning the order and developing the relationship), the company is 

losing gross margin potential. 

Sales will not get the work done on time – or done at all. 

The urgent always drives out the important, in sales and elsewhere. When Sales 

wears both the marketing and sales hats, marketing is what suffers. Therefore, 

you must consider what activities are not getting done when individual sales 

professionals and their managers are responsible for both sales and marketing 

roles. 

Team Exercise: Wearing Two Hats 

Individually complete the exercise in Appendix Five. As a group, discuss the 

items that fall into the “follow up later this week” boxes. The activities identified 

under “follow up later this week” or “follow up later this month” are typically 

marketing activities. 

When Sales takes on marketing activities, they are a biased source of information. 

To understand the bias Sales brings to the marketing role, one must think about 

how a good sales person carries out his or her role in the organization – getting 

the company considered and securing orders. A good sales person will spend 

time with customers who have a high potential to purchase within the next 12-18 

months. As a result, the sales person may not be listening in places where 

important information about your company’s position within the market and 

about market changes can be gained, i.e., 

• Lost customers 


• Non-customers who are buying complementary products of other 

technologies, but not your technology, i.e., they may be potential customers in 

the future 

• Manufacturers and providers of complementary products and services 

• Competitive technology suppliers 

• Your company’s suppliers who often have key insights into the building 

marketplace 

In addition to talking to a biased sample, Sales is always listening for information 

that will help secure an order. Sales people are focused on a much narrower set 

of issues than that which a marketing person would explore and learn about in 

the marketplace. Furthermore, the customer – knowing the role of the sales force 

– is oftentimes leery of offering information that might reduce his opportunity to 

push for price concessions. The customer may also be reluctant to share 

information he deems is not pertinent to someone in the sales function. For 

example, many organizations use their sales force to gain information about whey 

the company loses orders. Customers will always tell sales people that the 

company lost the order due to price, because they want to get the very best price 

possible in the future. They will rarely criticize sales performance to sales 

representatives, for example. Market research professionals, on the other hand, 

are able to gain a much better perspective on why the company loses customers, 

which is a key part of a strategic assessment. 

As a result of these sources of bias, sales people offer an important, but 

nonetheless biased, view of the marketplace. It is often said in marketing circles 

that if you ask the sales department to define the specifications for a new product, 

the product will be out of date before it is introduced to the marketplace. 

In light of these problems – it’s expensive, Sales does not get the job done, and 

biased information results – separate marketing resources are of great value in 

any organization. Strong tactical marketing creates: 

• More effective forecasting 

• More time the sales team can spend on selling 

• More focus throughout the company 

• More effective selling because the sales force is better focused, has stronger 

selling tools and aids, and there is prior awareness of the company 

• Better measures of how the organization is performing in its markets 

• More successful product introductions 

• Better feedback on the quality and cost position of the company so as to create 

quality and cost improvements 

• Activities to minimize sales losses should the market decline 

• More realized opportunities identified and pursued 

• Higher profits through stronger pricing approaches 

Strong strategic marketing creates: 

• A stronger, more effective market understanding process 

• More focus throughout the company 


• Conscious decisions of where and how to compete, which are key to 

differentiation and breaking out of a commodity market (see Pamphlet One) 

• Early warning of emerging risks and key opportunities 

• Stronger products and secure offerings 

• More focused and effective resource allocation 

• Higher pricing through better differentiation 

• Greater partnership opportunities 

• Stronger awareness and understanding of current and potential competitors 

While Sales and Marketing must work together effectively, it is important that 

Marketing not serve in the role of sales assistants. In particular, it is very 

important not to use Marketing to: 

• Evaluate specific sales representatives’ performance 

• Generate leads by calling on individual accounts 

• Create individual sales representative forecasts 

• Be the sales person for accounts with longer-term potential 

• Maintain all information in a customer database 

• Write proposals for a specific job 

• Serve as the engineer for new product development activities 

• Train Sales on selling skills (Marketing does train Sales on what to 

communicate in discussing why the company or its products are better than 

that of the competition) 

• Set prices in front of the customer (Marketing does set pricing policies and 

works with Sales in cases where policies are not effective) 

• Review contracts for accuracy or legality 

Finally, it’s important that Sales support Marketing in fulfilling the marketing 

role. Sales professionals help Marketing by: 

• Making customer contacts on behalf of Marketing 

• Providing feedback on product ideas and communications materials 

• Providing Marketing with an in-field understanding of how the products are 

working 

• Helping the Marketing people understand the sales process 

• Providing a record of won and lost orders and insights into market size and 

why orders are won and lost 

• Providing information on the competitor 

• Identifying who the key opinion leaders are 

• Defining tradeshow requirements 

If you are considering adding a marketing person to your staff, Appendix Six 

contains a job description that can help you get started. 

How Will We Achieve our Sales and Margin Goals? 

The Marketing Plan (This section draws heavily from Hiebing and Cooper) 


The Marketing Plan is to competitive strategy what the weekly itinerary is to a 

two-month trip or what production and capacity planning is to operations. The 

marketing-sales plan answers the following questions: 

• Where do we want to end up at the end of the year typically expressed in sales 

and margin terms? 

• What products and services will be the focus of proactive marketing and 

selling? 

• What are the priority target markets, i.e., groups of customers with similar 

needs defined in a way sales can identify whether customer fits or not? 

• What outcomes are needed in each target market to achieve our sales and 

margin goals? 

• What marketing and sales strategies will we use to create these outcomes? 

The tactical marketing plan translates the competitive strategy decisions and 

company-wide strategic goals into annual two-year action plans that drive the 

work of the organization going forward. The tactical marketing-sales plan 

insures you have a plan to achieve your sales objectives and that the activities of 

the marketing organization are aligned with the competitive strategy of the 

organization. The tactical marketing-sales plan also insures that operations 

(manufacturing design and erection) understand what marketing and sales need 

from operations (and vice versa) to fulfill their role in helping the organization 

execute strategy and achieve strategic goals. The role of management is to insure 

that the marketing-sales plan and the operations plan are in alignment so that 

everyone’s efforts will support one another. 

Hiebing and Cooper present the tactical marketing plan as a ten-step process 

which starts with a business review and ends with evaluating whether or not the 

results of the business are consistent with what was planned. Chart 11: Ten Steps 

to Disciplined Marketing Planning presents the ten steps to disciplined 

marketing planning. Development of the marketing-sales plan starts with a 

business review. This is basically an update of the strategic assessment of the 

organization (See Pamphlet Four). The review is used to identify problems and 

opportunities facing the organization, which the annual marketing-sales and 

operational plans will address. This review helps you assess whether or not your 

strategic plan is in fact working effectively and then modify the competitive 

strategy, if necessary. 

Problems and opportunities should be ranked according to impact, 

probability of success if addressed, potential return and criticalness to 

competitive strategy execution. It is often times helpful to differentiate problems 

and opportunities in terms of those that affect where your firm competes, e.g., 

target market products and services and geographies versus those that affect how 

your firm is different than the competition, e.g., pricing pressures, quality issues, 

speed issues, etc. 

The sales objectives stem directly from the strategic goals of the organization, 

one of which is typically defined around revenue, gross margin and operating 


profitability. From these sales objectives, Step Four of the marketing plan 

identifies the specific target markets and target customers the 

organization will focus on over the next two years and what outcomes or market 

and objectives we want within these target markets. This step creates the critical 

link between the actions of customers and the desired sales results for the 

organization (See Chart Twelve: Interlocking Sales Objectives). 

In selecting target markets, it’s important to remember that all marketing plans 

boil down to one question: “Whom are we trying to precondition to make selling 

as ‘effortless’ as possible?" There are many potential target markets for any 

organization. The role of the marketing plan is to prioritize who is the ideal 

target market for each product or technology offering and then for the company 

as a whole. Factors you might to consider in deciding on target markets include: 

• Who are the heavy users? 

• What are the strategic market segments? 

• Which have the best growth prospects? 

• Where is the highest profitability and loyalty? 

• Which are most attractive? 

• Where is awareness high, or where could it be high? 

• Which are most favorably inclined to work with us? 

The key decision in Step Four is to identify the target customer groups that will 

be the primary focus of the marketing-sales plans. Choose large, profitable, 

growing and well-defined targets. The secondary targets include: influencers; 

low volume but easy-to-access customer groups that are too small to be primary, 

but nevertheless can contribute to the financial outcomes of the firm; and other 

attractive targets that didn’t make the priority list for primary targets. 

The marketing objectives identify what needs to be accomplished, that is, 

ends that need to be achieved within each target market to achieve the sales 

objectives and the strategic goals of the organization. Defining marketing 

objectives are where most marketing plans fall apart. The marketing objectives 

must be: 

• Specific 

• Measurable 

• Have a defined time for completion 

• Achievable 

• Focus on achieving a specific target market behavior such as awareness, 

consideration or selection 

• Typically require multiple actions to be achieved 

• Relevant – they collectively insure you achieve your sales objectives 

Examples of marketing objectives would be: 

• Secure two parking deck jobs with leading design-build teams 

• Increase wall panel sales 25% to general contractors 


• Achieve a 90% repeat purchasing with top tier contractors this year 

• Drop the block business 

• Be positioned to offer steel and precast frames to the top-tier contractors by 

Quarter 3 

• Secure $2M in orders in Quarter 4 

Step Five is the marketing plan strategy development stage. In this case, we are 

referring to the plan strategies which will enable the organization to execute its 

competitive and growth strategies. There are two types of plan strategies: the 

communications positioning strategy and marketing strategies. 

The communications positioning strategy summarizes what you will 

communicate about your product and business relative to competitive offering. It 

is the “umbrella” or basis of all of your communications. It defines, confirms and 

reaffirms the most important reason for the product’s existence and why it should 

be purchased. It must be consistent with the strategic positioning of the 

organization. Communications positioning differs from strategic positioning in 

that the former speaks to a very strong emotional appeal of working with the 

company, while the strategic positioning speaks more to "objective and rationale" 

basis of superior value. 

There are a number of different approaches to communications positioning, each 

centered on one theme. Consider a precast bridge company that wants to 

compete on speed: 

• Focus on a product difference. Steel bridges takes five times longer than 

precast bridges. Can you afford the difference? 

• Focus on the key attribute or benefit. You get to drive faster and get home to 

your kids earlier. 

• Focus on problems with the category to show that you’re different, e.g., if 

building material subs only create headaches for you, you’re talking to the 

wrong sub. 

• Focus on the competitor. Steel can save you money, but only on the bid. We 

save you time. That’s real money. 

• Associate with something that the target market already likes. Taxpayers 

love parks, city services and grade schools. With precast bridge expanders, 

you too can be loved by taxpayers. 

• Focus on a problem that your product or service solves. There’s $2M of new 

funds available from the Feds for bridges. Too bad you lack the staff to go 

after this goldmine. With the precast industry’s help, you too can get bridges 

designed and erected fast. 

Which communications positioning do you choose? Select the one that: 

• Is most meaningful 

• Is feasible. 

• Creates the greatest differentiation versus the competition 

• Is completely consistent with the strategic positioning 


• Creates an umbrella that will be enduring over time 

You may also want to actually test your communications positioning with several 

groups of customers from each target market group. Since there is considerable 

overlap in different communication tools, it is critical that the chosen 

communications positioning be consistent across all target markets. 

Marketing strategies explain how you will achieve a specific marketing 

objective. They are descriptive, and neither quantifiable nor measurable. Areas 

to consider include: 

• Build market or steel share strategies 

• Location-specific strategies 

• Seasonality strategies 

• Competitive strategies 

• Product strategies 

• Pricing strategies 

• Selling strategies, e.g., bridge strategies, price justification and target 

customer profile 

• Promotion strategies 

• Advertising strategies 

• Merchandising strategies 

• Publicity strategies 

Communications programs help you achieve your marketing objectives. The 

communication goals are therefore sub-objectives of marketing objectives. 

Goals are developed by first asking, "What does the marketing plan hope to 

accomplish in terms of sales, awareness, image, education, leads and new 

accounts, etc.?" From this, you then establish what you have to accomplish in 

terms of your communication pieces. Communication objectives can be broad, 

(i.e., create a positive company image) as well as very specific (i.e., generate 50 

Class A sales leads during fiscal year ’01). 

Always keep in mind that marketing communications is an arm of marketing and 

its primary purpose is to help you achieve your marketing objectives. Don’t begin 

by saying, "I need a brochure." Rather begin by analyzing your marketing 

objectives and strategies and asking, "What objectives can communications 

potentially help you achieve?" (See Chart Thirteen: The 

Marketing/Communications Link) for an example of how communications can 

help achieve marketing objectives and strategies.) 

Note that in looking at the target markets, communication tools will focus on 

both broad audiences as well as narrow audiences. Advertising is often times 

focused on members of a target market as well as others, whereas a direct mail 

program would be directed to a very specific group of people within a target 

market. Also keep in mind that your employees and members of your community 

are important target audiences as well. Pizza Hut and British Air campaigns are 


great examples of using their advertising to communicate points of 

differentiation that their employees can learn about and be proud of. 

Once you understand how communications can be used, you then create 

communications objectives which are really sub-objectives of your marketing 

objectives. (See Chart Fourteen: Communications Objectives). There are a 

number of potential communication tools you can use to achieve your 

communication objectives. They include: general advertising; direct mail; sales 

brochures and sales aids, product displays, Website, publicity news releases, 

promotions, summaries, newsletters, executive correspondence, etc. Each tool 

serves a specific role in terms of helping you achieve your communications 

objectives. (See Chart Fifteen: Communications Tools). 

The keys to successful communications include: 

• Ensure your communications program contributes to the attainment of your 

marketing goals and is always consistent with your strategic positioning. 

• Create a written plan, with specified objectives, strategies, tactics, timetable, 

budget, measures. 

• Develop an integrated campaign in which communications elements reinforce 

one another -- not independent ads and sales sheets that work alone. 

• Maintain consistency in your message and its creative execution across the 

marketplace and over time. 

• Promise only what you can deliver; and substantiate your claims. 

• Convey your company’s points of distinction and value in terms that are 

meaningful to each customer segment. 

• Evaluate alternative creative executions relative to the communications 

strategy; don’t focus on graphic design or clever creative work at the expense 

of strategy. Test concepts with target customers. 

• Communicate your strategic positioning, communications positioning and 

program plans to employees. 

Also recognize that communication tools aren’t the only tactical tools. Other 

marketing tools include: promotions, new products and service introductions, 

new target market groups, joint ventures, pricing strategies, etc. 

Sales Plan 

The sales plan takes the overall marketing plan and prioritizes specific customers 

into A, B and C accounts. A are the most important accounts and will receive the 

most time from the sales representatives. Individual sales representatives then 

develop account strategies for A, and possibly B accounts to win orders. 

The sales plan also breaks overall sales and margin goals down into the goals for 

specific sales representatives or regions of the country. The sales plan also 

identifies the key objectives of the sales force required to achieve the sales- 


marketing plan objectives. In essence, the sales plan is the functional plan for 

sales that underlies achievement of the marketing-sales plan of the organization. 

What must we change in our operations to support the salesmarketing 

plan and achieve process goals? 

The Operational Plan 

The operational plan 0utlines what operations (engineering, finance, 

manufacturing and erection) must accomplish in the next two years. The 

operational plan objectives must be specific, measurable statements of outcomes 

that are desired in the organization. For each objective, it’s critical to identify: 

• Why this objective is important 

• Past barriers to accomplishment 

• Root causes of why problems exist or the opportunity exists 

• Strategies that will be used to address the root causes 

• Action plans 

• Budget 

• Timetables 

Examples of operational plan objectives include: 

• Create a more uniform wall panel surface and architectural panel surface 

• Build a strategic partnership with a steel fabricator. 

• Reduce design approval process cycle time by three weeks 

Like marketing and sales objectives, operational objectives must also be: 

• Specific 

• Measurable 

• Have a defined time for completion 

• Achievable 

• Typically require multiple actions to be achieved 

• Relevant – they collectively insure you achieve your sales objectives 

The process improvement and process redesign goals are translated into 

operational plan objectives to insure that the work of operations includes not just 

producing products and services that are sold, but creating changes in how 

products and services are produced so as to better achieve customer and financial 

expectations. The operational plan should also address activities related to 

managing the core competencies that underlie the strategic positioning. The keys 

to managing a company’s core competency are to: 

• Insure everyone in the organization knows what it is and how their part of the 

organization contributes to it 

• Establish plans to acquire competencies needed for the future 

• Strengthen them 


• Deploy them into new markets, which is the best way to leverage your 

resources and dramatically increase your return on investment in core 

competencies (new market development steps would likely be addressed in 

the marketing-sales plan) 

• Protect and defend them 

Financial Plan 

Most of you are in organizations that have an annual or two-year financial plan. 

When leadership oversees the process of "aligning" the organization to its 

strategies, the financial plan becomes the tool for testing whether resources are 

being effectively deployed to execute strategy. Individual departments are asked 

to create budgets consistent with achieving the objectives of the marketing, 

operations and sales plans. If the resources required do not yield the desired 

profitability, it’s back to the drawing board to find ways to execute strategy and 

achieve financial targets. Sometimes execution of strategy must slow down; other 

times groups become more creative in developing execution approaches. 

The financial planning process also insures that all departments understand the 

overall objectives of the organization (defined through the marketing plan and 

the operational plan), and are budgeting accordingly. The process of linking 

strategy to financial plans does not create a more hectic budget process. If 

anything, it helps the process -- as there is less bickering across departments on 

what is and is not a priority. 

What Partners Do We Need? 

A critical decision is which activities should your organization do themselves 

versus partner with others to do? A “not invented here” syndrome can paralyze a 

company. But the opposite side—relying too much on others—can strip a 

company of core competencies and competitive advantage. 

Through strategic alliances, organizations can "marry" their expertise, core 

competencies, products, and services to create incremental value that is greater 

than either can provide independently, and greater than the value offered by their 

joint competition. This allows both organizations to achieve significant 

competitive differentiation, which is particularly important in mature, 

commodity-like markets such as the PC-PS industry. (See Sidebar D: The 

Benefits of Strategic Alliances.) 

Business experts define strategic alliances in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most 

pertinent definition is that offered by author Jordan D. Lewis, who defines a 

strategic alliance as "a relationship between firms in which they cooperate to 

produce more value (higher benefits or a lower cost) than is possible in a 

(traditional) market transaction." 1 Several important concepts are inherent in 

this definition: 


Collaboration 

Crucial to a strategic alliance is the notion of collaboration. Partners must 

collaborate to create new value for their customers. The extent of collaboration 

may be broad and all-inclusive, or it may pertain only to certain aspects of the 

business. An alliance may form, for example, around certain types of products, 

such as stadiums or parking garages, or around certain delivery methods, such as 

design-build. If the alliance is limited in some manner, the partners continue to 

act independently in other areas of their businesses. 

Collaboration may also occur at a variety of levels. It may take the form of a 

consortia, such as PC-21, in which the companies pool resources to achieve a 

common goal. It may take the form of a joint venture, in which the firms pool 

different competencies and learn from each other in a shared-ownership model; 

in this case, the rest of the organization remains independent. Or, it may form as 

a value-chain partnership, a strategic alliance between companies that are 

connected on the value chain. 

Regardless of the scope or level, an effective collaborative relationship 

includes: 

• A commitment to mutual relationships and goals 

• A jointly developed structure and shared responsibility 

• Mutual authority and accountability for success 

• Sharing of resources, risks and rewards 

Change 

By definition, a strategic alliance requires that both partners change in order to 

jointly enhance overall value for the customer. If only your company, for 

example, changes in order to secure work, but your client does not alter its 

organization or work processes, you have not formed a strategic alliance. Rather, 

in this case, you are winning business by being customer-driven. [Your customer 

may perceive you as a "partner"-- perhaps even repay your efforts by allowing you 

to see the last bid or selecting you on the basis of "fair" pricing -- but in reality 

you have not formed a strategic alliance.] 

"This difference is where most initiatives to form supply alliances bog down. 

Overlooking the needs for substantial changes in management and organization 

styles, and for broad and deep inter-firm links, many companies (seeking to 

partner with their suppliers) assume the process is a mechanical one: Just reduce 

the supply base, establish a supplier rating system, mandate cross-functional 

teams, and everything is set to go. This assumption is wrong. Only a consistent, 

long-term commitment from top management to wide-ranging transformation 

leads to the best results." - J. Lewis 


Structure 

Strategic alliances can be structured in a number of ways, ranging from 

"gentlemen's agreements" to detailed legal contracts. Informal cooperation, 

formal contracts, and equity alliances such as joint ventures and minority 

investments are common examples. These may involve just two companies, or 

multiple firms in a "network alliance." 

The structure of the strategic alliance should be subservient to the partnership 

objectives, as well as to the nature of the relationships. This is true for the 

management, policy-setting and governance structure, as well. 

Strategic Alliance Opportunities 

Within the PC-PS industry, you may wish to consider strategic alliances with 

other precasters, your suppliers, other subcontractors, and various customers, 

including contractors, design-build firms, owners and developers. Because firms 

must retain their independence even when pursuing interdependent strategic 

alliances, organizations will rarely limit themselves to one partner. This suggests 

that your precast firm can enter into multiple strategic alliances, yet continue to 

bid for work from other customers. 

Strategic alliances do require, however, that the set of changes you make to 

enhance value with one organization is not broadly and equally shared with that 

organization's competitors. If you jointly developed an information network with 

one client, for example, you would not share it with that customer's competitors. 

Just as you can build alliances with your customers, your suppliers can enter into 

strategic alliances with your firm to increase the combined value you offer to your 

clients and the building owner. The alliance between High Concrete Structures 

and MasterBuilders, a collaboration of technological development and marketing, 

is an excellent example of this. 

Alliances improve the competitiveness of both partners through their many 

benefits. Alliances also offer a means of overcoming many of the disadvantages 

typically associated with traditional transactions -- the guarded, often 

antagonistic relationships in which little information is shared and there is little 

opportunity to enhance value. 

In effective strategic alliances, the linkages between companies are broad, deep 

and unique. The greatest value from cooperation comes from integrating each 

firm's separate processes into seamless operations. Instead of lowest price from 

the supplier, for example, the emphasis is on lowest total cost. Rather than 

seeking the fastest separate response times, the goal is shortest combined cycle 

time. As a result, the most productive customer-supplier interfaces require 

multi-functional teams which must be involved in depth. To create the most 

value, a supplier must adapt its organization for each customer's interface, 

reflecting the need for resources, structures and practices that are unique for 

each situation. 


Rather than contracts, effective alliances are based on strong commitments. 

Many alliances function without any contracts at all. They are sustained by a 

mutual need, a common objective seen as important enough to dominate any 

issue, a willingness to share the benefits and a trusting relationship. To an 

important extent, alliances are between people. When adjustments must be 

made, only people who trust and understand each other can make them in a way 

that maintains commitments. Only people who share a vision and the 

enthusiasm to make it a reality will invest the efforts needed for an alliance to 

succeed. 

Both organizations must trust one another, and maintain ongoing efforts to 

develop relationships at multiple levels. Open sharing of information allows each 

partner to identify collaborative opportunities to increase the value they bring to 

the marketplace. The need for trust requires that you select a partner that will be 

committed to the relationship and compatible with your organization. 

Both partners must maintain a long-term outlook which encourages each to 

engage in relationship building and information sharing; this will promote 

identification of emerging opportunities that increase value. Finally, both must 

appropriately manage the risks that are associated with dissolution of the 

strategic alliance. (See Sidebar E: Benefits and Key Success Factors of Strategic 

Alliances). 

How Will We Measure Success? The Balanced Score Card 

Measuring the results of your organization on finances alone is fraught with 

problems. Saavy organizations increasingly use a tool called a Balanced Score 

Card to measure whether or not strategy is being executed and, if so, is it creating 

desired results. (See Kaplan references for more information on the Balanced 

Score Card.) 

The objectives of the Balanced Score Card include: 

• Provide a set of performance measures which capture the intent of the 

business strategy and help drive it forward 

• Expand management’s focus to include all of those capabilities required to 

achieve the strategy 

• Direct the focus of the entire organization toward those performance 

measures critical to long-term success 

• Create a dynamic performance measurement system which adapts to the 

changing needs of the business 

• Provide a basis for setting long-term performance objectives which drive 

performance improvements 

The keys to creating a Balanced Score Card include: 


• Establish the critical success factors: core competencies, accomplishments, 

management decisions and organizational characteristics that are critical to 

executing strategy and achieving the vision. These summarize what needs to 

happen for the organization to succeed. 

• With this, you can then identify Balanced Scorecard measures, i.e., units of 

information (financial or non-financial) that provide meaningful feedback to 

strategy execution and, with this, success towards achievement of the critical 

success factors. 

Balanced Score Card measures are usually developed for four categories: 

• Financial 

• Customer 

• Operations 

• Innovation 

You can, however, develop other categories that reflect your overall areas of 

emphasis in building a winning company. Within each category, you then select 

leading (i.e., early measures) and lagging (i.e., late measures) of outcomes. For 

example, awareness levels may be a leading indicator of sales, with win rate the 

lagging indicator. Balanced Score Card measures are established at the company 

level. Then, each team or functional group level creates measures that stem from 

the company measures, but better reflect what the smaller group can directly 

influence. E.g., suppose one of the organizational measurements was win rate. 

The sales department measures related to this measure could be: 

• Consideration rate 

• # hours in front of existing customers 

What must the leadership team accomplish working as a team to 

enhance the capacity of the organization to succeed? 

Pamphlet Two focuses on the role of the senior leadership team and Pamphlet Six 

on developing strategic leadership skills. Reading about leadership is useful. 

Becoming a differentiated supplier requires you to translate awareness about 

leadership’s role and a desire to improve leadership skills into a plan to improve 

leadership skills throughout the company, starting with the senior team. 

Otherwise, dreams exist, but there is no change in reality. Slowly but surely, 

ambitions start to shrink and rose-colored glasses are used to convince yourself 

that today’s reality is really not that bad. (See Sidebar F: Most of us choose to 

ignore the crossroads we face, choosing slow death over deep personal change.) 

The leadership team plan outlines the work activities of the leadership team (as a 

team, not as individual managers of different parts of the organization) over the 

coming year. Like other key teams, there should be objectives and action steps 

and milestones. The work of leadership development and personal change is a 


critical part of this plan. (See Pamphlet Six.) Key decisions the leadership team 

must make over the coming year and any work in anticipation of these decisions 

should also be outlined. Examples of leadership team objectives include: 

• Revamp the performance evaluation system, shifting to 360 degree feedback 

systems 

• Design the balanced score card measures, consistent with our strategies 

• Create more trust and collaboration within our group 

The leadership team plan should also identify how the leadership team will 

measure their success as a team. Examples of measures include: 

• Scores on leadership assessment tools (See Pamphlet Six) 

• Completion of key objectives 

• Survey of employees assessing their view of our performance as a team (E.g., 

are we doing the right things and demonstrating strong leadership practices 

in how we work with others?) 

• Each individual makes progress on his personal development objectives 

Many senior leadership teams also create plans for the broader leadership group 

that includes all the managers of the company. Broadening the scope of the 

team’s activities insures that tomorrow’s senior leaders are being developed 

today. 

Summary 

Many companies have great planning systems, but they are focused on financial 

outcomes alone. Others have great ideas about how to be different than the 

competition, but their ideas never get translated into actions. Year-by-year they 

are doing the same old things. Both companies fail their people and their 

customers. Companies need to get different and get better. Companies 

competing as commodities need new strategies. Existing market leaders need 

enhanced points of differentiation. Both must develop even better execution 

skills to create the organization’s desired future. Even the lowest cost provider in 

a commodity market must be attuned to changes as companies with different 

business models can disrupt a market and threaten the lowest provider’s 

position. 

Act Three of the change process is where the rubber hits the road. Implementation 

of new competitive strategies or enhancing execution of an existing 

competitive strategy creates superior value for customers and therefore market 

victories. Implementation is enhanced by balanced score card measures and 

annual marketing, sales, operational, financial, partnering, and leadership team 

plans that translate strategy into desired near-term outcomes. This focuses all 

the efforts and initiatives of the organization on a shared direction. 

In a very real sense, implementation is the art of introducing and managing 

change. Management tools, such as budgeting, measurements and rewards, 


individual job objectives, timetables and evaluation of results are all valuable in 

this work. Chart Sixteen provides a framework for how these tools fit together. A 

critical point of alignment for companies in business-to-business markets is 

oftentimes creating a marketing department. 

The planning systems outlined in this chapter serve to align the work of the 

organization with its strategies to actually change (versus plan to change) the 

organization. But they serve other roles as well. This framework places 

leadership in the role of creating processes to align activities, thereby pulling 

them out of the work of daily operations. This opens the space for others to do 

the daily work, thereby enabling all employees to develop and use their inherent 

gifts. Use of this framework also creates a feeling of community—we are all in 

this together, each with distinct and important roles. Aligned planning is a key 

tool for building collaboration and tackling the "system" causes of distrust and 

weakened relationships across parts of the organization. With all these 

advantages, what are you waiting for? 

Questions to Ask Going Forward 

• Is our competitive strategy known and understood across the organization? 

• Do we understand which processes are or will be at the heart of or 

marketplace and financial success? 

• Do individuals, departments and process teams know how they contribute to 

our points of differentiation and core competencies? 

• Do we have the right skills? Are we creating, preserving and enhancing our 

core competencies? 

• Are we structured effectively to execute our strategies? 

• In our estimation, can one person serve as both the marketing and sales 

professional, i.e., can a marketing professional cover sales and vice versa? 

• What is not getting done in our organization when Sales is responsible for 

both the sales and marketing roles? 

• Does our company have a market understanding process in place that is as 

strong or stronger than its financial/operational information process? 

• Are our decisions and actions integrated around a well conceived, long-term 

competitive strategy? Who in our organization is helping us define the 

strategy and insure it “works” in the marketplace? 

• Are our measures consistent with our strategies? Do we have both leading 

and lagging indicators of success in strategy execution? 

• Are our planning systems focusing everyone in the same direction? Is it the 

right direction? 

• Are we deploying process improvement resources on the right processes? 

• Are we "fixing" processes when we should be redesigning them from scratch? 

• How should we change our "budget" process to better support our desire to be 

strategic leaders and to insure we are competing as a differentiated supplier 

rather than a commodity supplier? 


Sidebar A: Systems Thinking 

A systems perspective comes from looking at your organization from the 

“balcony.” Systems thinkers look beyond what is immediately apparent, seeking 

the root cause of visible problems. They also look for changes that will support 

multiple, versus a singular, opportunity. Systems thinkers are in the habit of 

viewing their organization in terms of interdependencies, interactions, sequences 

and processes that underlie the results of the organization. System thinkers do 

not see results being achieved through independent events and a linear chain of 

occurrences. 

A systems view leads us to understand a number of things: 

• You cannot evaluate a system without knowing its purpose. Varying purposes 

create chronically dysfunctional systems. This is why competitive strategy 

becomes so important for an organization as well as vision, purpose and 

guiding principles. It insures that individuals are all aiming in the same 

direction. Effective alignment, as executed through sales, marketing, 

financial, operational and leadership plans, insures that individuals are going 

in the same direction as well. 

• When an organization fails, the system is at fault. When people fail, the 

system is most often at fault. Always blaming people will not improve 

organizational results. 

• Errors can stay in the system a long time if the root cause is not treated. 

• It’s more expensive to treat problems downstream of where they occur as 

opposed to eliminating the problems from the start. 

• Anyone in the organization that inherits problems from another part of the 

organization begins to build up a certain level of defensiveness. "Rules" get 

created that slowly erode collaboration -- and even cooperation -- between the 

different parts of the organization. 

Rummler and Brakke, two noted operational improvement specialists, say it all 

when they comment, "An organization behaves as a system whether it is managed 

as a system or not." 

Sidebar B: Variation 

Process improvement uses a set of statistical tools that allow you to measure 

variation. Whatever variation there is must be differentiated between what is 

called "common" or "systemic" variation and special cause variation. The former 

is recurring variation that reflects an ongoing, underlying problem that you can 

anticipate will occur. For example, delivery of product beyond the promised date 

is often times due to systemic variation. It may be due to poor systems, weak 

communications or staffing that is too lean. Nevertheless, there are sometimes 

special or unique causes of variation. These are highly unusual, i.e., once in a 

blue moon events that cause an outcome which is significantly outside normal 

variation. These are the kinds of events that do not appear with a recurring 


pattern, i.e., an unexpected snow storm in Atlanta will reduce daily output of a 

precast work team. One way to differentiate special versus common cause is to 

ask if this is a unique problem or an example of a larger class of problems and 

second ask, "If I replace the workers, would I still have this problem?" 

The following table gives an example of special versus common cause drivers of 

delays in architect’s approvals: 

Special Causes Common Causes 

• Architect’s wife dies in car accident 

• Drawings delivered to wrong office, 

where they sat for days 

• Architect does not appreciate need 

for speedy approval 

• Architect is understaffed 

• Architect is unfamiliar with precast 

and therefore needs to find outside 

help prior to approval 

• Other parts of design that affect us 

are not yet complete 

• Approvals are used to help finalize 

the drawings 

The key to minimizing adverse outcomes from special variation is to ensure you 

have a process in place to get timely data that reveals special causes quickly so 

that you can react to them. In a hospital setting, for example, highly difficult 

cases are flagged early on so that a case manager can help oversee the care of a 

patient. The goal is to contain damage with an immediate remedy. It is 

important to understand what’s different this time, i.e., what’s causing the special 

cause outcome, as this special cause outcome could in fact become a common 

cause at some point. If you think it might become a common cause at some 

point, then you must develop a longer-term remedy. 

How do you deal with special causes? 

• Get timely data so that special causes are revealed quickly 

• Contain damage with an immediate remedy 

• Search for the cause -- what was different? Could it be a common cause at 

some point? 

• If so, develop a longer-term remedy 

The focus of continuous process improvement, and process redesign for that 

matter, is to adjust common causes of adverse outcomes. Here you look at all the 

data, not a single data point, and you stratify the data into high occurrence causes 

and low occurrence causes and you focus initially on improving or limiting the 

high occurrence causes. You may ultimately treat different classes of projects 

differently if you see correlations between sources of problems and types of 

projects. 


Trying to understand the causes forces you to play detective in terms of figuring 

out: 

• Who is involved? 

• What and where is the cause of the problem? 

• When does the problem occur? 

• What types of projects does it occur on? 

You use these types of questions to identify how you will "study" or measure how 

a process is working. Collecting data helps you focus on the true location of the 

problem. Once you identify the location of the problem, you then hypothesize 

why the problem arises and determine potential solutions to this. (See Steps 

Three and Four in Appendix One.) 

Sidebar C: Structure Affects, but Does Not alone Determine, Behavior 

“Breaking the Functional Mindset in Process Organizations,” Harvard Business 

Review, Sept./Oct. 1996. 

• Authors compare companies in the same industry – electronics 

• Reorganization of operations along process lines made no difference to cycle 

time performance unless it was accompanied by new management approaches 

that create a culture of collaboration by focusing on: 

• Teamwork skills 

• A collective sense of responsibility to process outcomes 

• Key “collaboration” tools used to make process reorganizations succeed 

included: 

• Structure jobs with overlapping responsibilities 

• Base rewards on group performance 

• Layout work area so people can see each other’s work 

• Change procedures to enable collaboration 

• Using the above tool(s) increased cycle time 7.5 times in process-complete 

organizations 

• Functional organizations were 3.5 times faster than process-complete 

organizations not using collaboration tools 

Sidebar D: Benefits of Strategic Alliances 

• Enhance product value 

~ Superior timing 

~ Create new or improved performances 

~ Lower costs and risks 

~ Provide more value in use 

~ Offer a stronger product line 

~ Compatibility that increases product appeal 

~ Enhance product images 


• Improve market access 

~ Produce better advertising 

~ Open new marketing channels 

~ Gain better channel control 

~ Improve supply links 

~ Lower input costs 

• Strengthen operations 

~ Create new and improved processes 

~ Use facilities more productively 

~ Cooperate to develop operating standards 

• Add technological strengths 

~ Add technology to your skill base 

~ Increase R&D creativity 

~ Build needed scale 

~ Ease major technology transitions 

~ Use market pull to encourage others' development 

• Enhance strategic growth 

~ Overcome market entry barriers 

~ Pave your growth path 

~ Join to explore new opportunities 

• Organizational reinforcement 

~ Learn from others 

~ Focus with a partial spin-off 

• Build financial strength 

~ Produce more income 

~ Reduce administrative costs 

~ Reduce investment exposure 

• Look for wider synergies that will generate yet more advantages 

Source: Partnerships for Profit, J. Lewis 

Sidebar E: Key Success Factors of Strategic 

• Do the "basics" right 

~ Select a good partner 

~ Define specific objectives 

~ Establish a structure that supports the strategy 

• Build trust and ongoing relationships 

• Maintain independence in the face of inter-dependency 

• Manage risks 

• Maintain a long-term outlook 


Sidebar F: Most of us choose to ignore the crossroads we face, 

choosing slow death over deep personal change 

The Tyranny of the In-Basket 

“When an executive admits that a change is needed but opts out not to make it, 

the executive is making a conscious choice. The water is slowly heating up and 

the executive knows that the leap to safety is possible, the strategic thought being, 

‘If I can hang on just a couple more years the problem will belong to someone 

else.’ However, when he leaps to safety, the rest of the work force is left with the 

problem. In this scenario, self-interest triumphs over collective responsibility. 

The selection of slow death has some moral overtones. It involves the violation of 

trust and responsibility, often leading to guilt. Because of the moral implications, 

the issue becomes undiscussable in the organization. Organizational members 

fake ignorance of the situation, while fully understanding that the organization is 

in serious trouble. The impact of this problem is enormous. 

“People slowly lose hope and begin to feel trapped by their circumstances. They 

often cope by withdrawing or conversely by staying busy with insignificant issues. 

Others who know how to lead and who understand deep change and the 

enormous investment of energy and resources that are necessary cannot bring 

themselves to initiate the process because they lack energy. There is no energy 

left. They are victims of burnout. So they continue to go through the motions 

finding it difficult to discover interest and relevance in their work. 

“What they need is deep change at the personal level, a re-invention of their 

professional role, a revolution in their priority list, a recognition that 

maintenance is production and that their absolute ‘must” really must be 

delegated to someone else. Few people are very good at re-inventing themselves. 

They often choose the destructive alternative of staying very busy. It may not be 

effective behavior, but has the effect of a good narcotic. It diverts attention from 

the real issue and temporarily saves them from having to tackle and resolve the 

actual problem.” (QuinnDeep Change) 


Administrative Processes 

Manage finances 

Ensure safety and OSHA compliance 

Material understanding and innovation 

Supplier management 

Hire, train, deploy the work force 

Project 

Management 

New product 

development and 

introduction 

Make the order 

Ship and erect 

Design 

Ideas 

Win the 

order 

Schedule 

Complete 

Drawings 

Market to customers 

and get considered 

Operational Processes 

Chart One: 

Macro Process View of a Precast Company

• Hire, train, deploy work force 

• Supplier management 

• Material understanding and innovation 

• Reduce waste and cost 

• Firm A makes industrial wall panels. They face a 

“commodity” market in which they are the highest 

cost producer. As a result, they are losing 

money. Their strategy is to innovate wall panels 

to significantly increase their value (electrical built 

in, easier installation, innovative insulation 

material, time savings on window framing, etc.) 

They believe they will earn a premium on this new 

product that exceeds their cost of differentiation. 

• Firm B competes on cost and speed of bridge 

beams and building/structural components (double 

T’s, etc.). They work in an area of significant 

labor shortages. They are already the 

fastest/lowest cost supplier. They do not want to 

lose their lead, however, rising labor cost and 

labor shortages threaten this. 

• Your firm 

• Ensure safety and OSHA compliance 

• New product development and introduction 

•Manage project finances and schedule 

• Ship and erect the order 

• Make the order 

• Complete the drawings 

• Schedule project, team, special forms 

• Get the order 

• Conceptualize the solution (value engineering) 

• Market to customers 

Your role is to assess process salience of 

Firm A or B, C and D. 

Generic Macro Processes 

Chart Two: Process Salience of 

Different PC-PS Companies

•Hire, train, deploy work force P I 

• Supplier management B I 

• Material understanding and innovation I B 

• Reduce waste and cost P I 

•Ensure safety and OSHA compliance M P 

• New product development and introduction I P 

•Manage project finances and schedule P P 

• Ship and erect the order on time and budget P I 

• Make the order on time and budget P I 

• Complete the drawings accurately/on time I I 

• Schedule project, team, special forms B I 

• Get the order B P 

• Conceptualize the solution (value engineering) I I 

FIRM A FIRM B Your FIRM 

Macro Processes 

I=identity; P=priority; M=mandated; B=background 

• Market to customers B I 

Chart Two: Process Salience of 

Different PC-PS Companies

Time 

Redesign 

Continuous Improvement 

Redesign 

Cumulative 

Improvement 

Chart Three 

Organizations Combine Process 

Redesigning and Improvement Efforts

* Changed market conditions, new competitive strategy or severe customer/cost/competitor 

problems exist. 

Process Redesign: 

Fundamental Change 

Process Improvement: 

Incremental Change 

No 

Situation demands 

we do things very 

differently * 

No 

It’s way too 

complex and not 

understood 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Standardize 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

7 Step Process 

Improvement 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

PDCA 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Fix the obvious 

(do-check) 

Does situation 

suggest only need 

is getting better? 

Does a straight 

forward and 

identifiable 

process exist? 

Does 

everyone 

use the 

same 

process? 

Is the 

solution to 

the 

problem 

known? 

Is implementation 

of the 

solution 

understood 

and low risk? 

Are you 

sure about 

your yes’s? 

Chart Four: 

Which Improvement Approach to Use?

Continuous Process 

Improvement Activities 

5-10% 

Establish Continue Process 

Improvement Priorities 

20% 

Define critical processes in 

context of competitive strategy 

Create an “idealized” overall 

organizational design 

Align macro process goals and 

measurements of success to your 

competitive strategy and 

organizational goals 

Oversee major breakthrough 

process redesign 

80% 

High 

100% 

Chart Five: 

Senior Management’s Role in Process Edge

In hierarchical cultures, the "referee" decides which solution is "best". His success in "eliminating" the burden depends directly on the 

amount of information and insight he has. 

Erection Crew Will not work outside current 

geographies 

Spend long time away from 

home 

Manufacturing Tell Sales they will no longer 

accept difficult-standard shapes 

for architectural precast panels 

at market prices; a 55% 

premium is expected 

Work overtime, incur scraprework 

costs 

Engineering Send an extraordinary number 

of pieces to production with a 

very short lead time 

Re-engineer how design 

process works so that 

manufacturing has smoother, 

steadier work flow 

Marketing, Sales and 

Production work with 

Engineering to create even 

more design process changes 

that help smooth production 

Engineering, Construction and 

Manufacturing work together 

to create a cast-in-place system 

for all odd shapes--this is now a 

Construction Division service 

offering 

Engineering, Finance and 

Erection identify strategic 

partner for U.S. erection that 

trains under home-based 

company teams 

Sales Sales promises dates that the 

plant is unlikely to meet 

Sales spends extra time and 

effort convincing owner the 

wait is worthwhile 

Sales, Marketing, Engineering 

and Production work together 

to create "quick" building 

system that offers faster lead 

times 

Competition: 

Shift the Burden 

Cooperation and 

Coordination: 

Absorb or Split or Minimize 

the Burden 

Collaboration: 

Eliminate the Burden 

Chart Six: Examples of Collaboration vs. the 

Alternatives

Tactical 

PCI 

Company 

Strategic Activities/Decisions 

• Product line offering 

• Served customer market segments 

• Strategic positioning, i.e., the company’s value 

proposition to its customers 

• Pricing strategies 

• Geographic scope 

• Business development priorities and growth 

strategy 

• Distribution channel selection 

• Operational priorities and critical processes 

Market 

Strategic 

Tactical Activities/Decisions 

• New product introduction 

• Product modification and obsolescence 

• Sales support material and other promotional 

and communication efforts 

• Target customers and communication 

positioning 

• Forecasting 

• Training, with respect to product/customer 

(not selling skills) 

• Key customer interfaces 

• Pricing policies 

Chart Seven: Tactical vs. Strategic 

Marketing

~ Where company competes, i.e., business scope ~ Participate in broad-based decision-making 

(geographies, products/services, market segments) regarding where and how company competes 

~ How company will win market share, i.e., strategic ~ Identify specific products and market segments 

positioning within overall scope 

~ Operational strategy (structure, core competencies, ~ Select positioning for specific products 

etc.) consistent with company-wide positioning 

~ ID of critical processes ~ Create and communicate market understanding 

~ Allocation of resources broadly and facilitate use in decision-making 

~ Purpose, guiding principles and vision ~ Represent the voice of the customer in strategic 

decisions 

~ Identify marketing resources required for 

achieving near-term sales/profit objectives 

and long-term vision 

Company Strategic Decisions Marketing Department's Role 

Chart Eight: The Marketing Department's Role

New Product and New Market Development ~ Identify ideas for new products/new markets 

and develop proposals/plans 

~ Specification 

~ Trials 

~ Introduction plan 

~ Participation in reviews, project team 

meetings, etc. 

Get the Order ~ Marketing activities to ensure sales forecast 

is achieved (e.g., advertising, promotion, etc.) 

and sales representatives are more efficient and 

effective 

~ Pricing policies 

~ Selected field support 

Manufacture-Ship the Order ~ Identify customer issues/needs 

~ Forecasting for production planning 

~ Help prioritize cost reduction activities and 

ensure customer value not compromised 

~ Analyze geographical options for expanding 

productive capacity (e.g., competitor risks, 

acquisition targets, etc.) 

~ Help specify supplier requirements that affect customer 

satisfaction 

~ Post-project customer satisfaction assessment 

Key Company Processes Marketing Department's Role 

The Marketing Department's Role (continued)

Chart Nine: The Differing 

Perspectives of Sales and Marketing 

Sales Makes Matches 

Marketing Identifies and 

Attracts Potential Matches 

and Helps Insure Future 

Matches 

Thinks about 

Customers as: 

• Potential orders • A marketplace 

Groups Customers by: • Probability (buy this year) • Needs 

• Probability (we will win) 

Where He/She Works: • In the field with customers • In company 

who will buy and with • In field (universities, 

influencers 

regulatory boards, 

competitors, substitutes, 

compliments and lost, 

current, long-term potential 

customers 

Relationship to 

Customer and 

Company: 

• Company to customer • Customer to company 

Listens for: • Current customer needs and • Market changes 

how I tailor what our • Future products and 

company offers to meet services of company 

these needs 

• Business context of 

customer/non-customer 

• Barriers to sales 

effectiveness today 

Key Things to • Time • Resources 

Prioritize: 

• Segments 

• Products and services 

• Source of advantage 

• Competitors 

• Geographies 

Measures of Personal • Sales 

• ROI/EVA 

Success: 

• Repeat business 

• Market share of opinion 

• Margin 

leaders' business 

• Market share 

• Sustainability of success 

• Market share and growth

S 

A 

L 

E 

S 

~ Specific customer 

understanding 

~ Identifying & 

prioritizing 

targeted accounts 

~ Securing 

contracts/sales 

~ Exhibits 

~ Marketingsales 

plan 

~ Market 

understanding 

~ Presentation 

~ Building 

relationships 

~ Negotiating 

~ Closing 

~ Product, 

technology 

~ Selling 

~ Empathy 

~ Flexibility 

~ Listening 

~ Works independently 

~ Sees “people” 

side of 

everything 

M 

A 

R 

K 

E 

T 

I 

N 

G 

Ownership 

~ Market 

understanding 

process 

~ Product line 

specification 

~ Pricing policies 

~ Product intro & 

obsolescence 

~ Clinical trials 

~ Marketing-sales 

plan 

~ Positioning 

Participation 

~ Operational 

plan 

~ Cost 

reduction 

projects 

~ Exhibits 

~ Selected 

accounts 

Skills 

~ Analytical 

~ Conceptual 

~ Project 

management 

~ Strategic 

planning 

~ Product 

promotion 

~ Systems 

thinking 

Knowledge 

~ Finance 

~ Advertising 

~ New product 

assessment & 

development 

~ Market trends 

~ Forecasting 

~ Market research 

~ General 

management 

Traits 

~ Teamwork 

~ Listening 

~ Patient for 

long-term vs. 

short-term 

results 

~ Can cut to the 

core 

~ Enthusiastic 

about product 

area 

Chart 10: Duties and Qualifications

• Initiate an “executive 

level” relationship with 

target accounts 

• Predispose target accounts 

to receiving a sales call 

• Generate sales leads from 


• Create a positive image of 

your company in the 

minds of target customers 

• Increase wall 

panel sales 

25% in FY 97 

• Steal market share 

from competitors by 

differentiating our 

company on the basis 

of speed 

• Communicate your point 

of distinction to target 

competitive accounts 

Marketing Goal 

Marketing Strategy 

How Communications 

May Help 

Chart 13: The Marketing/Communications Link

• Generate sales leads 

from target accounts 

• Arm the sales force with 

sales support materials 

• Product positioning 

strategies 

• Communicate your 

company’s point of 

distinction (i.e. 

incremental value 

associated with product 

from your company) 

• Market building 

strategies 

• Communicate the 

introductory promotion 

• Selling strategies 

• Stimulate interest in new 

product 

• Launch new 

product XYZ 

in Q2 FY97 

• Introductory 

promotions 

• Announce new product 

availability 


Marketing Strategy 


May Help 

Chart 13: The Marketing/Communications Link

* Ideally, this should be quantified through market research. 

• Initiate an “executive 

level” relationship 

with target accounts 

• Predispose target 

accounts to receiving a 

sales call 

• Gain executive level and 

sales level entry into 15 

target competitive accounts 

by beginning of Q3 



• Generate 100 sales leads 

from target competitive 

accounts by end Q2 

• Create a positive 

image of your 

company in the minds 

of target customers 

• Redefine the company’s 

image in the minds of target 

customers* 


panel sales 

25% in FY 97 


point of distinction to 

target competitive 

accounts 

• Increase awareness of the 


distinction within target 

accounts* 



May Help 

Communications 

Objectives 

Chart 14: Communications Objectives

* Ideally, this should be quantified through market research. 



• Generate 180 sales leads 

from target accounts by Q3 

• Arm the sales force 

with sales support 

materials 

• Create sales support 

materials by end Q1 



distinction 

• Create awareness of the 


distinction* 

• Communicate the 

introductory promotion 

• Generate interest in new 

product, including 250 

inquiries regarding the 

promotion 

• Stimulate interest in 

new product 

• Launch new 

product XYZ 

in Q2 FY 97 

• Announce new product 

availability 

• Create awareness of new 

product availability among 

target customers* 



May Help 


Objectives 

Chart 14: Communications Objectives

Seminars, Newsletters, AV, ~ Educate; inform; initiate relationships 

Executive Correspondence 

Promotion ~ Provide incremental value to product 

~ Create incentive 

Publicity/News Releases ~ Reinforce advertising messages 

~ Increase awareness 

Sales Brochures/Sales Aids ~ Reinforce advertising messages 

AV, Product Displays, Website ~ Sell the product/service concept 

Direct Mail ~ Reinforce advertising messages 

~ Generate sales leads 

~ Pre-dispose customer to sales call 

Journal Advertising ~ Convey strategic positioning 

~ Communicate points of distinction 

~ Increase awareness 

~ Build image 

Tools 

Communications Objectives 

Chart 15: Communications Tools

• Gain executive level 

and sales level entry 

into 15 target 


by beginning of Q3 

• Executive correspondence 

• Newsletter 

• Generate 100 sales 

leads from target 


by end Q2 

• Tradeshows 

• Direct mail 

• Advertising 

• Web site 

• Redefine the 

company’s image in 

the minds of target 

customers 

• Journal advertising 

• Publicity 


panel sales 

25% in FY 97 

• Increase awareness of 

the company’s point of 

distinction within 



• Publicity/news releases 



Objectives 

Potential Tools 


• Generate 180 sales 

leads from target 

accounts by Q3 

• Direct mail 

• Advertising 

• Publicity 

• Create sales support 

materials by end Q1 

• Company positioning 

brochure 

• Product literature 

• Sales aids 

• Promotion fliers 


panel sales 

25% in FY 97 

• Create awareness of 

new product 

availability among 

target customers 

• Generate interest in 

new product 

• Create awareness of 

the company’s point of 

distinction 


• Tradeshows 

• Publicity-feature articles, 

news releases 

• Web site 



Objectives 

Potential Tools 


Is it working? 

Evaluation 

Execution 

Company-Wide Budgets & Timetables 

What’s our itinerary for 

getting there? 

Organizational Structure 

Marketing & Sales Plans 

Operational & Partnership Plans 

Leadership Team Plan 

Finance Plan 

Business Assessment 

Problems & 

Opportunities 

Tactical 

Where do we want to end up? 

Vision and Strategic Goals 

What direction do we follow 

to get there? 

Competitive Strategy Decisions 

Where are we? 

Strategic Problems & Opportunities 

Strategic 

Where are we? 

Strategic Assessment 

Chart Sixteen: 

Overview of the Alignment Process

Plantes Company July 1997 PCI:I 

• Overview of process flow diagram (SIPOC) to ID major players and interconnections 

• Data describing the needs of the customer(s) 

• Baseline measure(s) 

• Mission statement or objective for the team doing the process improvement 

Tools Used and Likely Outputs from Step 1: 

• What is the problem we're experiencing, what is the gap? 

• Which processes are involved in this problem? 

• Which of these processes do we think is directly related to the problem? Why? 

• What are the key steps in the process (what is it that we do)? 

• Why do we perform the process (what are we trying to accomplish)? 

• Who is involved in these processes? 

• What are the results of the process (what are the outputs)? 

• Who are the key customers of the process and what are their needs (who uses the results, and what 

qualities to they require in those results)? 

• What are the boundaries within which the project team will work to improve the process? 

• What baseline measure(s) can we use to help us determine how well we are currently meeting 

customer needs, and then how much we have improved the process (how will we know if we've 

made any improvement)? 

• Who will sponsor this team's work? 

Questions Answered: 

Step 1 Goal: To define the project’s purpose and scope 

Appendix One 

Joiner 7-Step Method, Step 1: Define the Project


Reduce time from contract approval to 

approved shop floor drawings. 

Purpose of Project: 

6 

Process Aim: 

Why do we do 

what we do: to 

make sure 

components we 

deliver are 

erectable and fit 

the overall 

building solution 

GC 

3 

Who supplies 

what we need to 

do what we do? 

2 

What do we 

require to do 

what we do? 

1 

What do we do? 

4 

What are the 

results of 

what we do? 

5 

Who uses 

what we do? 

Structural 

Drawings 

Owner 

Int 

Prepare 

No 

Architects’ 

Drawings 

Yes 

Architect 

Source 

Check 

Submit 

Approved 

Approved 

Drawings 

Contract 

Ex 

Prepare 

No 

Engineer of Record 

Plant 

Suppliers Inputs Process Steps Outcomes Customers 

GOAL: Define the project’s purpose and scope (SIPOC) 

Joiner 7-Step Method 

Step 1: Define the Project


• Detailed flowchart of the process to understand steps in the process 

• Run chart/control chart of the baseline measure(s) 

• Pareto diagrams, histograms, scatter plots, and others showing stratified symptoms 


• How does the process work currently? What is the history? 

• What results does the process currently produce? What kind of variation do we see in the results? 

• Are there ways we could simplify the process without sacrificing the desired quality of the results? 

• What strategy for reducing variation makes sense? 

• Can we draw a picture of the process? 

• What type(s) of symptoms of the problem occur? 

• Where do the symptoms of the problem occur? 

• When do the symptoms of the problem occur? 

• Who is involved when the symptoms occur (suppliers, customers and employees) 


Step 2 Goal: To further focus the improvement effort by gathering data on 

the current situation 


Step 2: Assess the Current Situation


Measurement may lead you to redefine the problem! 

Resubmittals 

Wall 

Panel 

Structural 

AP 

Resubmittal 

N 

Y 

Y 

% N 

N 

# 

N Y 

Y 

Frequency Frequency 

Days 

1 2 3 4 5 6 

No resubmittal 

Project # 

Time Until Approved 

Shop Floor Drawings in Days 

Days 

STEP 2A: Investigate the problem by measuring outcomes 

GOAL: To further focus the improvement effort by gathering data on the 

current situation 




What 

~ Complex projects 

What 

~ Fast track projects 

Where 

~ Between project architect and her boss 

Where 

~ Openings 

~ Structural pieces, not architectural precast 

When 

~ Large # people in approval process 

~ Mechanical sub is not yet selected 

~ GC or architect do not yet need our drawings 

When 

~ Incomplete architect drawings 

~ Bed is changed 

Who 

~ Mechanical sub 

~ GC not familiar with precast 

~ Our designers, not our engineers 

Who 

~ John and Jim, not Frank or Jeff 

~ Architect, not designers 

Source of Delay Hypotheses Source of Resubmittal Hypotheses 

STEP 2B: Play detective --Hypothesize who was involved? Where was cause of 

delay? When does delay occur? What type of project? 

GOAL: To further focus the improvement effort by gathering data on the 

current situation 




Where? 

Who? What Type of Project? 

Non-AP AP Other Openings 

Non-AP 

1 

2 3 4 

DB 

CM 

% 

Resubmitted 

GC 

Resubmittals 

GOAL: To further focus the improvement effort by gatheringses to identify what 

to measure, then measure to identify true location of problem 




STEP 2D: Hypothesize why the problem arises. You may need to do further 

detective work and measurement. 

GOAL: To further focus the improvement effort by gathering data on the current 

situation. 




• Cause and effect or tree diagram mapping out possible causes 

• A list of theories about likely causes 

• Data to verify the theories 


• What could possibly cause the symptoms we're seeing? What are possible deeper causes? 

• Of the possible causes, which seem to be the likely causes? How do we know? 


Step 3 Goal: To identify and verify deep causes with data; to pave the way for 

effective solutions 


Step 3: Cause Analysis


Deep Causes ! ! ! 

Secretary did not 

provide as a priority 

Did not receive 

notice 

Has not used PC 

in past 

We did not alert 

Does not understand 

PC role in bldg. process 

and no process ??? 

Mechanical sub 

not selected 

Mechanical sub 

is late 

Not informed 

Does not understand 

building process 

Lack mechanicals 

Not aware of 

due date 

Not aware of 

effect of delay 

Has more 

pressing problems 

Lacks information 

to approve 

Architects feels 

no urgency 

-- Do for each “why” you choose to address 

GOAL: To identify and verify deep causes with data so as to pave the way for 

effective solutions 


Step 3: Cause Analysis


• Matrix of possible solutions and criteria for choosing solution(s) 

• Plan for small scale tests of solution(s) 

• Results from small scale test(s) 

• Plan and execution of full scale implementation of best solution 


• What possible solutions could address the deep cause of our problem? 

• What criteria are useful for comparing the solutions? 

• Which is the best solutions? 

• How can we test our solution(s) on a small scale? 

• What results do we get from our small scale test? 


Step 4 Goal: To develop and try out solutions that address deep causes of the 

problem 


Step 4: Solutions


Solution 

4 

Solution 

3 

Solution 

2 

Solution 

1 

Criteria 

1 

Criteria 

2 

Criteria 

3 

Criteria 

4 

Criteria 

5 

GOAL: To develop and try out solutions that address deep causes of the problem. 


Step 4: Solutions


• Run chart/control chart of baseline measure(s) to demonstrate improvement 

• Stratified data showing symptom reduction 


• What results does the process now produce? 

• Do the results demonstrate improvement? Enough improvement? 

• What did we learn from implementation that will help us to plan for process improvement 

elsewhere? 


Step 5 Goal: To evaluate both the solution and the plans used to implement 

the solution 


Step 5: Results


• New flowchart of the process reflecting the improvements made 

• Plans for maintaining the gains 

• Plans for educating/training relevant individuals 


• How do we convey the necessary information to the necessary individuals in the organization to 

assure that everyone who needs to knows about the improvement? 

• What is in place to prevent backsliding? 

• What, if anything, does the greater organization need to know about the improvements? 


Step 6 Goal: To maintain the gains by standardizing work methods or products 


Step 6: Standardization


• documentation of lessons learned throughout this cycle of improvement 

• recommendations for the next cycle of improvement 

• data to support recommendations 


• What remaining improvement needs are there for this process? 

• What is the next, most important opportunity for improvement? 

• What did we learn from this project about this process, and process improvement in general? 


Step 7 Goal: To anticipate future improvements and to preserve lessons from 

this effort 


Step 7: Future Plans

C. What baseline measure will you use to assess performance of the shop 

floor drawing process along the dimension of the problem you’ve 

elected to focus on? 

B. What specific problem do you want to work on (e.g., accuracy, speed, 

cost to complete, inefficient design for manufacturability)? 

A. What are the problems you experience in the shop floor drawings 

process? 

I. Project Definition 

Appendix 2: Process Improvement Exercise

– If speed is the problem, where are all the places delay occurs 

– If accuracy is the problem, what type of mistakes emerge and 

where might they occur? 

– What are the types of customers or buildings or products where 

problems are most likely to emerge? 

– When do the problems occur? 

– Who in your company is involved (but not to blame for)in the 

mistakes? 

B. Hypothesize a pareto chart for your company for one of the ways you 

stratified the appearance of the problem (e.g., create a chart for when, 

where, who or what or some other stratification). Use the stratification 

approach you feel would most likely reveal insight into the 

appearance of the problem if you collected real life data. (See 

example on the next page.) 

A. Identify the different ways the specific problem appears by using 

different stratifications (when, what, where and who) for the 

appearance of the problem. E.g., 

II. Current Situation: Detective Work! 

Process Improvement Exercise (continued)

Architect 

approves 

our 

submitted 

final 

drawing 

We 

receive 

prints 

from 

architect 

PC-PC 

engineer 

turnaround 

PC-PS 

manufacturer 

approval 

Other 

Stratification Choice: 

Source of delay 

stratified by where in 

the process the delay 

appears 

10 

14 

18 

32 

101 

Frequency 

EXAMPLE 

Problem: Speed of shop floor drawing completion. 


B. For each top level cause, ask why? why? why? to build the tree 

diagram to lower levels. 

C. Of the possible causes, which do you feel are the likely key causes? 

D. Back in the office, how could you identify what is the root cause of 

the problem you are focusing on? (See example on the next page.) 

A. Create a tree diagram to brainstorm the root cause(s) of the highest 

frequency factor identified (hypothesized) in Step II. 

III. Cause Analysis: Brainstorming the Why 


We lack 

standard methods 

Our process changes 

regularly 

No one is 

responsible 

Architects do not 

have set assistants 

We failed to alert 

firm as to due date 

Secretary failed to 

tell architect 

Etc. 

PC-PS drawing 

not made from 

final prints 

Architects 

are overworked 

Architect was unaware 

of our due date 

Etc. 

Architects’ delay 

EXAMPLE 


• As you proceed through the steps, the exercise will become more and more hypothetical. 

Minimize your time spent on IV and V. 

NOTE: 

A. Assume you’ve implemented the solution. How will you decide it’s an improvement? 

V. Evaluation of Solution 

A. Hypothesize the most significant driver (i.e., the root cause) of the high frequency 

occurrence of the problem you elected to focus on. 

B. What are the different ways you would eliminate this? 

C. What criteria will you use to choose one solution over the other? 

IV. Solution 


A) Identify ways you could measure the 

performance outcomes of your company’s 

“Get the Order” process 

B) Create the “as is” process map for your 

organization’s “Get the Order” process 

(Don’t get hung up here – move on if you 

get stuck) 

C) Theorize (where, how, when, to whom) 

problems appear and identify problems you 

feel are most important to solve (consider 

customer satisfaction, cost and success and 

ramification on execution speed, cost, 

quality if order is won) 

D) Brainstorm potential causes of problems 

and hypothesize which are most significant 

E) Identify at least two new ways to design the 

“get the order” process that eliminate the 

most important problems 

F) How will you evaluate one solution vs. 

another? 

10) Where do you prioritize customers? 

9) Does/should process differ for existing vs. new 

customers? 

8) How does completed work relate to getting the 

next order from a customer? 

7) Are there any subs that are at the owner’s table 

early? How did they do that? 

6) How is scheduling connected to the “get the 

order process 

5) Who does the estimating and what +/-’s result 

from this 

4) Types of customers 

3) When is material decision made? 

2) How do customers hear about you? 

1) ID of target customer 

Steps Factors to Consider 

Appendix Three: 

Company Process Redesign Exercise #1

Job Description Exercise (continued) 

~ Articulate reasons why your company/material should be used 

~ Keep your company's name/capabilities in front of: 

- existing customers 

- new customers 

~ Find out why you lost business 

~ ID market changes and assess their implications--risks and 

opportunities 

~ Determine your strengths and weaknesses vs. competition 

(PC and other materials) and the associated risks and opportunities 

~ Systematic pricing comparisons vs. competition in order to ensure 

you are not leaving money on the table 

~ Tools to make it easier for sales to secure new orders or do 

"negotiated" work 

~ Sales force training on products and markets 

~ New product identification 

~ New market identification 

~ ID changes needed in existing products 

Responsibility? Well? Regularly? 

Who Holds Is it Done (Yes or No) 

Appendix 4: Job Description Exercise 

Who's Doing Marketing's Job in Your Company

Responsibility? Well? Regularly? 

~ Attendance at construction industry seminars/meetings to 

learn more about market trends 

~ Analysis of customer/product/market profitability and plans to 

improve profitability 

~ Developing and executing plans to enter new products/markets 

~ Development and execution of educational programs and services 

for designers 

~ Represent "voice of customer" in key decisions about resource 

prioritizations and organizational/product changes 

~ Forecasting market size so you can decide on a fair "stretch" 

goal for sales 

~ Evaluating your market share: what is it and why is it what it is 

~ Measuring customer satisfaction and assessing changes 

~ Identifying unmet customer needs (existing, new and lost customers) 

~ Understanding customers' strategic issues for next 3-5 years 

(existing, new and lost customers) 

Who Holds Is it Done (Yes or No) 

Who's Doing Marketing's Job in Your Company

• Which items did I prioritize to 

handle today? 

• What did I hand off to other people? 

• What will I do with what remains 

this week? this month? 

• What insights have I gained? 

It’s the task we all dread -- sorting through our in-basket after being away 

from the office for a full week. But it has to be done, and, following your 

relaxing vacation, you’re up to the challenge. As the sales director of a 

PC-PS company with three sales reps reporting to you, you’re under a lot 

of pressure from your general manager to make sure the numbers come in 

this year. But you’ll be well compensated for your efforts, through both 

salary and generous sales commissions. 

Your Assignment: Working individually, sort through your 

in-basket and decide what to do. (Assume that no 

regional association exists to help you.) 

Then record your answers to the 

following questions: 

Appendix Five: The In-Basket Exercise

17 

Note from Boss: 

Revised FY 96 and 

FY 97 sales forecast 

due Friday 

18 

Need to complete 

first draft of revised 

sales territories by 

end of the month 

19 

Industry trade magazine 

needs final artwork 

for your advertisement 

by end of day 

20 

Customer is refusing to 

make progress payments 

on completed product 

inventoried at the plant 

25 

Reps report companies not 

in your geography are now 

bidding on precast jobs 

you’re going after 

13 

Feature article trade 

magazine, “The Use of 

Design-Build Concept to 

Increase by 50% in 

Next Five Years” 

14 

Need mailing list 

for company program 

and plant tour for 

architects by Friday 

15 

Identify two sales 

people to attend PCI 

sales training 

school 

16 

Memo from a sales 

rep: The job we didn’t 

bid that was going 

masonry has just gone 

tilt-up 

24 

Three reps report work looks 

great for ‘97 but ‘98 

looks bleak from what they 

can ascertain 

9 

We lost the frame part 

of another order to a 

steel frame company 

10 

A new contractor is in 

town. Sounds like the name 

you told me who does 

tilt-up. 

11 

ABC project bid date 

has been moved 

forward and is due 

one week earlier 

12 

3-Day National Strategic 

Marketing Seminar for 

general contractors; $1500. 

Deadline today. Owners, 

contractors, D/B on agenda. 

23 

Report in newspaper: 

residential construction 

continues to grow. Labor 

shortages are driving prices 

dangerously high. 

5 

Missed delivery date 

on Johnson project 

due to lack of approved 

shop drawings 

6 

New sales rep starts 

next week; need to 

finalize his orientation 

7 

Perceived partnership 

XYZ Contractor is degrading 

to a low-bid situation 

due to new project manager 

8 

Another architect has 

questions on how to 

use panels for 

school building 

22 

Note from your friend, the 

company’s engineering VP: 

“I keep getting job offers 

from DB firms. Is it time 

to leave?” 

1 

New Dodge Data reports 

arrived showing regional 

market trends 

2 

New national fire 

codes being revised 

3 

Smith project manager is 

rejecting erected product 

for quality issues 

4 

A new company in town 

is planning to build its 

headquarters and wants 

to know your capabilities 

21 

Old customer calls to complain 

About how long lead times 

Are for precast this year. 

Your In-Basket Messages

What did I learn? 

FOLLOW UP LATER THIS 

WEEK 

FOLLOW UP LATER THIS MONTH 

Item To 

DO TODAY 

HAND OFF TO 

In-Basket Worksheet

Appendix Six: 

Marketing Manager Job Description 

TITLE: MARKETING MANAGER 

REPORTS TO: VICE CHAIRMAN 

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE: U.S. MARKET 

Position Overview 

The marketing department is the "voice of the customer" in an 

organization. Absent a strong marketing function, the organization 

becomes operationally and financially driven (at the expense of long-term 

market position) or sales driven. Effective marketing is critical in any 

market in which the buyer, the buying criteria or the competition is 

changing. 

Within Company XYZ, the Marketing Manager will serve or participate in 

a number of crucial roles: 

1) Participate in broad-based decision-making regarding where to compete 

(target customers, markets, products, technologies, services) and how to 

compete (the company's strategic positioning, differentiation and valueadded). 

2) Develop strategies to promote the sales of current products in both 

existing and new markets. 

3) Develop project proposals and business plans for new products, and 

participate on new product project teams, serving as the marketing 

representative and the voice of the customer. 

4) Select a specific positioning strategy for each of the company's products, 

consistent with the company's overall strategic positioning. 

5) Serve as the spokesperson of the customer within the company, 

ensuring that customer needs and views are conveyed and taken into 

account as part of all strategic decisions. 

6) Identify the marketing resources required to achieve near-term sales 

and profit objectives, as well as the long term vision. 

7) Oversee and/or conduct marketing activities to enhance the efforts of 

the sales force, helping to ensure that the sales forecast is achieved. This 

includes the provision of sales support materials and select field support, 

for example, visits to key accounts. 

8) Conduct forecasting the production planning. 

Plantes Company Page 270

Marketing Manager Job Description (continued) 

Specific Duties of the Marketing Manager Position 

The Marketing Manager for Company XYZ will be responsible for all 

tactical marketing activities and be a key participant in strategic 

marketing decisions. In the short-term, emphasis will be on tactical 

activities to swiftly gear up efforts to promote existing products within 

current markets. Also crucial will be near-term market research and 

other activities to gather the market information essential to determining 

where and how to compete. 

Over time, emphasis will include the strategic aspects of marketing, 

including identification of new markets and new product development. 

Tactical Marketing Functions / Activities 

The Marketing Manager will direct and implement the following tactical 

marketing functions, at times directing the activities of external resources 

such as communications consultants or agencies, market research firms, 

etc. 

• Conduct market research. 

• Define target customers and communications positioning platform. 

• Develop and implement marketing programs that support sales 

representatives' selling efforts, enabling them to be more effective on 

the job. 

~ sales support materials, including sales aids and promotional 

literature (company positioning and product/service) 

~ advertising programs to generate awareness, pique interest 

andconvey value-added benefits and company differentiation 

~ direct mail campaigns to generate sales leads 

~ trade shows, exhibits and seminars 

~ new product/service introductions 

• Identify ways to increase sales of current products 

~ new applications within existing customer base 

~ new types of customers 

• Define product obsolescence and modification strategies. 

• Implement new product introductions. 



Strategic Marketing Functions /Activities 

The Marketing Manager will participate in the following strategic 

marketing functions, bringing to the decision-making process the crucial 

market information and customer voice essential for successful strategic 

decisions. 

• Gather market information to assist the company's efforts to: 

~ define the product line 

~ define served market segments 

~ determine the company's strategic and product positioning 

~ establish pricing policies 

~ determine the company's target geographic scope 

~ select distribution channels 

~ define operational priorities 

• Play a proactive role in developing and identifying new products 

and markets. 

The Marketing Manager will not: 

• Develop the communications pieces. 

Rather, the marketing person sets the objectives and is the "client" of the 

communications expert 

• Develop the overall geographic strategy. 

Rather, the marketing person will help gather information to assist in 

decision about geographic scope. 

• Define the long-term strategy of the company in terms of products, 

technologies and way our company is differentiated from the 

competition; the marketing person. 

Rather the marketing person will help gather information to assist our 

decision making in this area. 

• Manage new product development teams. 

Rather the marketing person will serve as the "voice of the customer' on 

these teams, defining needed specifications. He/she will also help us 

create priorities within potential development projects. 

• Focus primarily on bridge beams and utility concrete products. 

Rather the marketing person will focus on the precast-prestressed building 

business. 



Position Objectives 

Short-Term 

To identify opportunities to better capitalize on Company XYZ's existing 

products and current markets. Further, to develop a written marketing 

plan to accomplish this. This plan will include specific objectives, 

strategies, tactics and action plans, as well as both a timetable and budget. 

Long-Term 

To identify markets for existing products, and profitable new products. 

Further, to develop a written business plan to accomplish this. This plan 

will include specific objectives, strategies, tactics and action plans, as well 

as both a timetable and budget. 

Position Interfaces 

The Marketing Manager will interface with essentially all functional areas 

with the company, always serving as the voice of the customer. In 

particular, this position will interface with Sales, Engineering, Customer 

Service, Production and Project/Product Managers. Additionally, the 

Marketing Manager will be the primary liaison to key opinion leaders and 

companies with complementary products lines, serving as the 

headquarters representative. 

Instructions for the Recruiter 

1. Job description attached 

2. Type of person we are looking for: 

~ Strong willed ~ Persistent 

~ Educator, persuasive ~ Team player 

~ Enthusiastic ~ Good listener 

~ Highly driven 

~ Makes things happen, is accountable, takes ownership 

~ Aggressive women tend to do well in our company (we have 

examples we can share) 

~ Good people skills (will have to deal with multiple business units 

with strong managers) 



3. Skills/knowledge 

~ Business analysis 

~ Sales force marketing support 

~ Competitor analysis 

~ New product development 

~ Market research-secondary and primary 

~ Research capabilities 

~ Written, presentation and one-on-one communication skills 

3. Background (in order of priority) 

~ Experience in turning commodity products into value-added 

solutions 

~ Business-to-business marketing in industries in which there are 

multiple types of customers affecting purchase decision, thus 

making the selling and marketing process more complex, e.g., 

° purchasing agent and engineer 

° designers and owners (e.g., an office partitions company) 

° distributor and distributor's customer 

° subcomponent manufacturer and final product manufacturer 

~ Evidence of interest in/experience with technical areas 

~ Construction experience not required and may be a negative 

4. Work history must demonstrate: 

~ Development of marketing strategies and execution of effective 

marketing programs; has written a marketing plan 

~ Research: definition of objectives; how to do it; how to use findings 

~ Ability to prioritize 

Other Notes 

• This position is a research/tactical marketing position. It would be 

desirable to move this person into longer-term strategic marketing 

analyses and decision-making. A person with the skills to grow into 

more of a strategic thinker would be welcomed. But the position 

responsibilities initially will be tactical/research focused. Good tactical 

marketing skills are essential. We are not looking for a salessupport/research-support 

person. We need someone who can identify 

and execute marketing strategies to expand sales of our current 

products/technologies in existing markets and identify new, related 

products to serve existing markets.

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