The Focused Organization: How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution

The Focused Organization uses the author's own research and work experience to demonstrate how and why those organizations that focus on just a few key initiatives can perform significantly better than do unfocused organizations and this, not only financially (realizing higher profits) but also in the achievement of their strategic objectives and the motivation of their staff. The book proves that fact that most companies have very similar strategies and business objectives (e.g., growth, expansion, innovation, market leadership) yet just a few succeed achieving them.The first part reveals the alarming fact that although the number of projects in both private and public organizations has gradually increased every year since the 1970s, project management as a discipline has not been a priority for either business leaders or the academic community. The author explains why this has happened and the multiple ways in which corporations around the world have suffered the consequences. This first part of the book also introduces a new way of looking at a company through two very different and often conflicting dimensions: running-the-business and changing-the-business. What you add to one dimension you have to subtract from the other one. Finding the right balance between these two dimensions represents one of the major challenges for top management to successful strategy execution.The second part of the book explains the importance of being focused to succeed, both as an individual and as an organization. But becoming a focused organization involves a radical change in the way companies are organized and the way they select and manage projects-in fact, the creation of a new culture-and the process will not be easy. The book discusses the characteristics that comprise a focused organization; describe the four six key areas within which a focused organization has built its levels of maturity; provide examples of focused organizations that outperform the rest; and explain in practical steps, through the introduction of a fast-track transformation project, how all enterprises can become focused.One of the weaknesses in both project and portfolio management has been the limited extent to which organizations have connected these activities to their key strategic needs. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez shows you how to address this shortcoming and how, as a consequence, fewer, more effectively elected and managed projects are the key to strategic and long-term success.The book finishes with a unique and inspiring case study that transports us to the early days of the current business world. Through the main character, Benny White, we learn how a business was on those days and how management evolved over decades with the introduction of the most important business theories, including project management.