The important question to answer here is: What does success look like?
In the mid-1990s, Taco Bell, then a PepsiCo company, was one of the hottest companies on earth. In the middle of its success, John Martin, Taco Bell’s CEO, assigned seven of his highest-potential middle managers to a two-year, full-time, multidisciplinary team to rein- vent Taco Bell’s business model. Martin’s vision was “250,000 points of access by the year 2000.” He defined a point of access as “wherever someone can buy a Taco Bell product.” Taco Bell’s new vision was clear, memorable, and measurable.
Given that Taco Bell had about 4,000 stores at the time, 250,000 seemed to be an unrealistic goal. However, the team energetically be- gan work and within a few short months had created a new process that increased store openings from 700 each year to more than 1,200. Martin thanked the team but told them that while that was very good news, the goal was still 250,000 points of access.
The team decided that it needed to think more creatively. At the time, cafeterias were the only place to eat in airports. “What if we put Taco Bells in airports?” the team members wondered. “Let’s call them SPODs” (special points of distribution). Soon, Taco Bell SPODs were popping up in airports, stadiums, and strip malls. SPODs quickly added more than 1,000 points of access each year. Again, Martin was grateful but unmoved. The vision was still 250,000.
The team had a few failures—Taco Bell vending machines, frozen burritos—but then they had a brainstorm. Why not use Frito-Lay, an- other PepsiCo company, to produce and distribute Taco Bell chips and salsa? Within a few months, Taco Bell chips and salsa hit grocery store shelves. Another 50,000 points of access. Good, but still not enough. The team added another 5,000 points of access through Taco Bell carts, designed to sell products in parks and on street corners. They also created a program for selling burritos to schools for sale in school lunchrooms. This increased store utilization during the morning hours and turned thousands of schools into points of access.
The team missed the 250,000 mark, but they increased points of access from 4,000 stores to well over 100,000 points of access. But innovation isn’t free. The effort required a two-year commitment of the highest-potential managers from each function, plus significant consulting fees. The investments were significant; the results were breakthrough.
The Taco Bell story is an example of a clear vision of success that created an explosion of innovation. The story provides three important lessons for setting and executing a human capital vision:
1. An unambiguous statement of success is required.
• The end-state must be quantifiable and include a measure- ment of success.
• The end-state must be time-bound.
• The statement must be simple and unforgettable.
2. Organizational transformation requires an organizational in- frastructure that maximizes the probability of success (e.g., a full-time, dedicated team of the highest-potential performers).
3. Significant and focused investments in time and money are required.
Does your organization have an unambiguous definition of human capital success—what success looks like when you have arrived? If so, is your performance to the vision improving year-over-year?
Source : Bradley W Hall, PhD. The new human capital strategy : improving the value of your most important investment—year after year.AMACOM. 2008
Given that Taco Bell had about 4,000 stores at the time, 250,000 seemed to be an unrealistic goal. However, the team energetically be- gan work and within a few short months had created a new process that increased store openings from 700 each year to more than 1,200. Martin thanked the team but told them that while that was very good news, the goal was still 250,000 points of access.
The team decided that it needed to think more creatively. At the time, cafeterias were the only place to eat in airports. “What if we put Taco Bells in airports?” the team members wondered. “Let’s call them SPODs” (special points of distribution). Soon, Taco Bell SPODs were popping up in airports, stadiums, and strip malls. SPODs quickly added more than 1,000 points of access each year. Again, Martin was grateful but unmoved. The vision was still 250,000.
The team had a few failures—Taco Bell vending machines, frozen burritos—but then they had a brainstorm. Why not use Frito-Lay, an- other PepsiCo company, to produce and distribute Taco Bell chips and salsa? Within a few months, Taco Bell chips and salsa hit grocery store shelves. Another 50,000 points of access. Good, but still not enough. The team added another 5,000 points of access through Taco Bell carts, designed to sell products in parks and on street corners. They also created a program for selling burritos to schools for sale in school lunchrooms. This increased store utilization during the morning hours and turned thousands of schools into points of access.
The team missed the 250,000 mark, but they increased points of access from 4,000 stores to well over 100,000 points of access. But innovation isn’t free. The effort required a two-year commitment of the highest-potential managers from each function, plus significant consulting fees. The investments were significant; the results were breakthrough.
The Taco Bell story is an example of a clear vision of success that created an explosion of innovation. The story provides three important lessons for setting and executing a human capital vision:
1. An unambiguous statement of success is required.
• The end-state must be quantifiable and include a measure- ment of success.
• The end-state must be time-bound.
• The statement must be simple and unforgettable.
2. Organizational transformation requires an organizational in- frastructure that maximizes the probability of success (e.g., a full-time, dedicated team of the highest-potential performers).
3. Significant and focused investments in time and money are required.
Does your organization have an unambiguous definition of human capital success—what success looks like when you have arrived? If so, is your performance to the vision improving year-over-year?
Source : Bradley W Hall, PhD. The new human capital strategy : improving the value of your most important investment—year after year.AMACOM. 2008
1 comment:
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