Insights

The quality of our Vision, Strategies & Planning can be only measured after execution. Without doubt, ability to ‘Make things happen’ can make or break our professional & personal dreams. Senior Executives such as Functional Heads, Sales Heads, ‘Special Projects’ leads, Delivery Managers, Sales Heads – all of them have to translate plans on paper […]

Targets Series#2 : Matsushita example of Top-down approach to deploy targets Here’s a live case that I read from The TQM Magazine, Volume10, Number 6, 1998 by Yoshio Kondo. I liked it and thought it is very apt and also interesting to read. “Matsushita Electric Industries’ Car Radio Division received a demand from one of […]

Targets Series #3 : Bando example of bottom-up approach to deploy targets Here’s a live case that I read from The TQM Magazine, Volume10, Number 6, 1998 by Yoshio Kondo. I liked it and thought it is very apt and also interesting to read. “Bando Chemical Company, for a long time had been implementing the […]

Target Series #4 : Q – How to solve Ownership Issues; A – Catch Ball Technique It is indeed this topic very close to heart for many of us, isn’t it? Each of us will have stories of frustration to share on how we were appraised poorly, received low bonuses, promoted last, long arguments with […]

Essential Business Plan For Start-ups – Individual Hoshin Plan – Part 1 There are innumerable articles and templates for preparing a business plan for start-ups. But what I found is that most of them are too exhaustive and so a strong de-motivator for an enthusiastic individual who wants to pen down his ideas and present […]

Essential Business Execution Plans For Start-Ups – Individual Hoshin Plan Part 2 In this series of two articles and in continuation to Part 1, I have described the key aspects for starting or expanding the business. Section 3 In this section, I have introduced two levels of plan. 1. Readiness Plan If you have decided […]

Before I start telling you what an X-Matrix is, let me give you some context. X-Matrix is a very popular visual tool traditionally used by Japanese companies, and now by many world-wide for planning their organization’s strategy. It is part of the approach called Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment) X-Matrix is a one page document that […]

Hoshin Planning process, derived from Japanese policy deployment approach of Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment) has several salient features over conventional strategic planning process. If you are accountable for organizing annual goal setting for your organization, it would be a good idea to learn about Hoshin Planning process. Following are the top 7 salient features of […]

Kanri is the strategy execution process in the Japanese approach of Hoshin Kanri. To my knowledge, it is the only approach that seamlessly integrates strategy creation to its execution. Considering that this Japanese method has been in existence for 60~70 years now, it is interesting to know that originators of Hoshin Kanri have given equal […]

A Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment) X-matrix is a one page document strategic plan of any organization that includes goals, strategies, strategic projects (initiatives) and owners. It is also known as Policy Deployment (PD) document. It is a X-shaped matrix diagram linking the aspects mentioned above. One wouldn’t miss the big X at the middle of […]

The success of any strategy and its execution is a dependent on the how leaders within the organization demonstrate ownership and participate in its execution. Most conventional strategic management approaches don’t have well defined roles that leaders need to play, when it comes to strategy creation and execution. In many cases, the roles are un-articulated […]

Outcomes of Policy Deployment Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment), a Japanese strategy and execution approach has been used by many organizations as a framework for their strategic planning. Hoshin Planning can be considered as a the process of setting annual goals for an organization or function and deploying them down the line. In general, Hoshin Planning […]