Dec 2007  -  As organizations work rapidly to redefine themselves in today’s rapidly evolving markets, HR professionals are tasked with aligning roles, structure, and competencies to support implementation. In their article Building a Leadership Infrastructure: A Road Map for Strategic Change published in the Winter 2007 edition of HR Pulse, authors Michael Abrams, Managing Partner, and Bill Ott, Senior Consultant, outline a framework HR professionals can use to ensure that key leadership development processes systematically support the organization’s strategic direction.

Thoughtfully constructed and efficiently implemented Leadership Infrastructure is the cornerstone for sustained and successful change. The authors describe the linkage that drives consistent role redefinition, performance management, hiring and selection, training, and individual development in support of new strategic market requirements, and offer guidance for successful implementation.

Dec 2007  -  Rita E. Numerof, Ph.D., President and Bill Ott, M.B.A., discuss how to create Strategic Sales Excellence in Maintaining Momentum in an Increasingly Competitive Environment, published in the Winter 2007 issue of Focus magazine.

Too often, the organizational response to increased competitive pressure is to assume simply that reps haven’t "gotten" the training that’s been given, and do more of it. The authors argue that when the sales landscape changes, sales management needs to look at the end-to-end sales process against the new requirements of the situation, and to focus on the role of management in changing behaviors to adapt. Numerof and Ott illustrate through a case study the step-by-step approach taken by a successful pharma organization to successfully adjust to such change.

Nov 2007  -  Globalization and the increased competition that it brings is driving change in the role of the market research function and the way it defines itself. The need to move from a tactical approach to a strategic marketing orientation is nothing less than a transformation -- and that is the point of Transforming the Market Research Department -- and Why You Need to Do It. Published in the November 2007 issue of Product Management Today (as A Transformation of the Market-Research Department May Be in Order) , authors Dr. Rita Numerof, President, Bill Ott, Senior Consultant, and Teena Rull, Consultant, discuss the changes required in the function to support pharmaceutical companies in their transition from a product-driven to a market-driven business model.

The authors discuss the new demand requirements of the strategic marketing role, the competencies required at the individual contributor level, and the changes needed in the functional mandate to successfully support growth and sustainable competitive advantage.

Oct 2007  -  Senior Consultant Bill Ott, M.B.A., and Patrick T. Drake, M.B.A, Business Analyst focus on the critical next step for healthcare organizations determined to manage their multiple challenges in Infrastructure Development: It’s Time to Get Serious, published in the October 2007 issue of HH & N Online.

Healthcare systems are facing numerous critical challenges: growing costs, decreasing reimbursement, and tough marketplace competition. Organization-wide cost reduction has often been the reaction to these factors. The fallout has been increasing turnover in a labor market that is chronically short of workers, and a deteriorating work experience for employees and patients. The authors outline the shortfalls of cost reduction strategies for addressing these challenges, and focus on a longer-term solution -- building the skills and accountability for more effective and efficient people and process management into a redefined managerial role. Leadership Infrastructure Development involves aligning critical processes with the organization’s objectives and making managers at all levels accountable for managing to people and process metrics. The authors outline the steps and rationale for Leadership Infrastructure Development, and offer guidance about challenges to expect and pitfalls to avoid.

Oct 2007  -  As a real time progress tracking tool, dashboards are the report card of choice in many organizations today. But, do they make the grade? In Uses and Abuses of Dashboards, published in the October 2007 issue of Health Leaders IT. Dr. Rita E. Numerof, Ph.D., President and Mark Morgan, M.S. (R), Senior Business Analyst, explore the reasons that many dashboards fail, and the necessary steps for making them work.

The point of a dashboard system is to provide a real-time snapshot of progress, but the accuracy of that picture is only as good as the data used. The authors delve into how and why dashboards sometimes mislead organizations. They examine critical issues like linkage of metrics with activity versus results, the potential of the wrong metrics to obstruct collaboration instead of enhancing it, and the questions that need to be answered to build a better dashboard.