Strategic compass:

This (extensive) publication is the Thesis I wrote for my MBA degree when I was working for Hewlett Packerd Netherlands. To this day I am very surprised to note that in nearly every organisation I work for as a freelancer, nobody know precisely what the three major goals are and what each individual can contribute on a day-to-day business.

My thesis may help organisations to define these goals, explain what the goals mean in terms of personal objectives and behavoiur, and measure the results in the light of these objectives.

Strategic Compass

In 2003 I was is involved as project manager in several post-merger aligment projects and I noticed a different culture between the “Classic HP” and “Classic Compaq” colleagues.

My MBA Thesis gave me the very rare opportunity at HP to perform a study on how Strategic Objectives were perceived management and employees of the then recently integrated HP-Compaq Service Organisation.

The Main results of the study were very interesting:

  1. The interpretation of Strategic Objectives were not the same between Management and Employees
  2. The interpretation of Strategic objectives were not the same between the original Compaq and HP employees.
  3. The priorisation of Stategic Objectives was not the same between Management and Employees

Surprisingly enough, the interpretation of Strategic objectives were the same between the HP and Compaq ex-Digital employees. This shows how strong a culture of an earlier company that is taken over can linger.

Note: Today in 2014, there are still ex-Digital HP employees who sport Digital branded paraphanalia, even paper note books of the day.

Al in all, this study gives concrete handle on how to measure the aligment of Management and the Workforce in terms of Objectives. Very helpful indeed if Management by Objectives Method is employed.

MBA Thesis – The full text Thesis, the Appendices are can be provided after well-motivated request.

I dedicated one page to the thesis results

For the Thesis I developed very simple Quick Reference Cards that will help any company communicate the Strategy to the Workforce in a concrete format that is relevant to the Workers daily activities.