Xerox Bets Big on Services

Last month Xerox made a significant push into the services business with their announced $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services. By following the lead of competitors, IBM and Dell—who themselves just a week ago announced the purchase of Perot Systems—Xerox immediately tripled its services revenue to $10 billion. Xerox believes they are now well positioned to capitalize on the future of improved office productivity by helping businesses with services such as billings and claims processing. To scale their services business without an acquisition would have taken Xerox "ten years" according to CEO Ursula Burns.

This foray into services is not new, even for Xerox. Almost ten years ago the company tried expanding into services during previous CEO Rick Thoman's tenure. So what happened? As Burns notes, previous M&A efforts into services faltered due to "management missteps, not a misplaced strategy." She continued saying, "If we had a problem…it was about implementation not the goals."

The fact of the matter is that companies' strategies—in most cases—are sound. Where they really struggle is in the basic management practices and processes associated with effective execution.

Read the Business Week Article

Executing Strategic Change

So what did Xerox do previously that caused the missteps with their strategy execution? Truth be told, it is hard to know even after the fact. However, recent research released by three scholars published in California Management Review provides some insights into the behaviors and benefits successful strategy executors exhibit. Arnoud Franken, Chris Edwards and Rob Lambert all of Cranfield School of Management examined ten key strategy execution elements and correlated them with seven specific business benefits from just under 100 companies. The top four benefits and elements are listed in the table below.

To what extent does your organization exhibit the top four elements? It's worth finding out how well you're doing so you can start getting the main benefits today.

Read the California Management Review Article

Strategic Planning

Two recent surveys by consultants McKinsey and Bain found that almost 90% of organizations conduct strategic planning in some form. But do these organizations achieve the benefits they intend to? In this month's Planning Through Performance Brief, I discuss a classical strategic planning process and provide some tips regarding improving the effectiveness of your strategic planning activities.

For more information on Strategic Planning and other great content, visit the PTP section of edbarrows.com:

• Strategic Planning Brief

Let's Start the Conversation!

Merriam Webster defines the word conversation as, "an informal discussion of an issue by representatives of governments, institutions, or group." While indeed there are readers that fit each element of that definition, it does seem quite formal. Regardless, I want everyone to know that we can now engage in our own conversation regarding strategy via my blog. Yes, that's right, this month I've taken the plunge and started a blog that I hope will be a nexus for lively discussion regarding almost any and all topics related to strategy planning and strategic performance management. In addition to debate on current topics in these areas, there will be a calendar of upcoming strategy events, listings of webinars, as well as a host of other bits and pieces of information readers might find useful. So weigh in and let's use our conversation to improve the practice of strategy.

To log into my blog visit http://edbarrows.wordpress.com or access it via my LinkedIn profile.

I hope you enjoyed the September/October issue of my e-Newsletter, and thanks for reading. As always, keep improving your Planning through Performance! For more on strategy and performance coaching, visit EdBarrows.com.

Here’s what I’m up to over the coming weeks:

November 3rd-4th, 2009
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Boston Scientific: PALM 1—Strategy Execution

I will be teaching an ongoing series of strategy execution sessions courtesy of American Management Association to managers at Boston Scientific throughout 2010.

January-May, 2010
Wellesley, Massachusetts

Babson College, Olin Graduate School of Business: Competitive Environment & Strategy

I will be teaching a section of the capstone MBA course on business strategy to graduate students at Babson.

Ernie Badway!

Ernie Badway, Parnter, Fox Rothschild

"Super Lawyer" Ernie Badway is a litigation partner at Fox Rothschild where he practices corporate law, commercial litigation, internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense. Prior to joining his current firm he worked in the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office. The bottom line with Ernie is this: he’s a really, really good guy to know if you need legal assistance in a corporate setting. So knowledgeable is he in fact that he recently published an encyclopedia!

The Encyclopedia of New York Causes of Action: Elements and Defenses is considered a "starting point for virtually any civil case containing New York civil actions, legal principles and defenses." Not bad for a college buddy of mine from Boston University. So a big Bravo Zulu to Ernie for a fine piece of legal literature.

Ernie will receive a men's Vineyard Vines tie for his Pink Tie Award, (women Pink Tie Award winners receive a Vineyard Vines handbag).