Implement the Vision

A vision is only as good as its implementation. In large corporations there are generally two major roadblocks ”fragmentation and inertia. They are really part and parcel of the same critical problem ”multiple views of the business.

NCR

Our company, NCR, operates in over 100 countries and was, until a few years ago, structured on a country-by-country basis. The company had operations around the world but they weren t efficiently collaborating.

As each country made decisions about how to run their business, strategies became localized and the infrastructure and processes became fragmented . Many different operational systems developed causing the finance department, for example, to spend an inordinate amount of time sifting and standardizing information. It was nearly impossible , within a reasonable time frame, for NCR to get a complete view of receivables, travel and entertainment expenses, inventory and other aspects of the company s financial picture.

The inertial force of being such a large organization made it difficult ”but we had to make some hard changes. The country division model was broken down and NCR centralized its financial functions into a shared service center model. This model consolidated the operational finance functions for the entire company into four locations through which all activity is now managed. Most of the disparate operational systems have been collapsed into global systems. The resulting standardized data is being loaded multiple times a day into one integrated Enterprise Data Warehouse for reporting and analysis.

Now managers in the company can get a faster, clearer view of their performance. Plus, we have shortened our financial close cycle from 14 days to 6 days and financial analysts can drill from summary data to detail journal entry data with ease. Finance costs have been reduced by $50 million annually. Inventory carrying costs are lower by $10 million. Customer Services reporting cost has been cut by $3 million.

There s still work to be done, but we re on the path . We ve committed the company to change and we re following through with our vision for a truly global NCR.

 

A vast amount of the research and analysis resources in many companies is drained in the process of searching for information, and then arguing about its validity. The average executive regularly looks at 10 to 20 different metrics. Typically the marketing department s analytics differ from the CFO s or the supply chain s analytics. Senior executives act as mediators instead of innovators. In the meantime, business opportunities are lost and performance slumps.

Why does this happen? Companies are fragmented. Their data resources are fragmented. Information is stored in separate locations around a company and jealously guarded by each proprietor. Exercising dominion over bits of information makes people feel powerful and they don t want to lose that power. People don t see the big picture. There is no overarching goal that animates everyone. People create their own reality. Any change is resisted as a threat to power. The power isn t real. What s more, change is detrimental to the success of the company.

How can we avoid the fiefdoms people create for themselves ? It starts with a strong, clear vision that brings all the disparate divisions in a company together. From vision flows culture and the structure of a foundation. Vision should be the driving force for all decisions.