Developing high performance companies

“In times of hyper-change, operational innovation is vital to an organisation’s performance and existence. Organisations must get their people, processes and technology right.Central to getting it right is how the organisation views its situational circumstance and how it develops its strategic direction and operational agility”.

This was Dr Lee Styger’s message to attendees at the Graduate Management Association of Australia’s conference held in July this year.

Dr Styger’s research, “Profiling Performance Management in a Time of Uncertain Economic Stability”, underpinned the message. The research highlights challenges businesses face into the future and areas of opportunity for increasing productivity and growth using innovative business processes and strategic solutions. Some of the challenges and solutions identified included:

• The gap between old and future market opportunities

• The need for talented people now and into the future

• The double impact of the retirement of the baby boomers and the entry of generation Y into the workplace

• The retention of knowledge capital, its growth

• The expansion of channel and knowledge management as an enabler for strategic differentiation

Dr Styger emphasised that creative change was the answer and was resolute in his conclusion that sustainable business evolves from business processes and market engagement strategies that are innovative. Dr Styger also suggested business schools had a role to play by building in or ramping up innovative capabilities in their curricula to equip future leaders with the confidence and commitment to effectively drive change.