Designing Organizations for Performance - Harvard Business School MBA Program

Designing Organizations for Performance

Course Number 1373

Professor Robert Simons
Winter, 29 Sessions
Paper

Career Focus and Educational Objectives

If your business is operating in uncharted territory-as a new technology start-up; a turnaround facing financial crisis; or a thriving business confronting new competitive threats-you must foster an intense level of executive engagement to ensure successful implementation of your business strategy. This course will provide you with the necessary tools for achieving such engagement.

We begin by reviewing seven implementation imperatives: topics or processes that you must master to assure the successful implementation of your strategy. The implementation imperatives are:

  1. Allocating Resources
  2. Setting Goals
  3. Innovating
  4. Collaborating
  5. Managing Risk
  6. Affirming Values
  7. Adapting to Change

You will learn how to manage these imperatives using novel accountability systems and structures. Case studies and lectures will illustrate how to fine-tune these tools to drive superior performance.

The final-and most important-module of the course does not provide answers, solutions, or summaries. Instead, we focus on asking the right questions. We introduce the critical "take away" that will give you insight into key questions that business leaders must ask and re-ask to engage their organization and ensure that strategies are on track and sustainable as circumstances change. By the end of the course, you will know how to design an organization capable of bringing out the best in people and competing successfully in any market.

Grading

During the semester, you will have the opportunity to practice course concepts by building a detailed strategy implementation plan. Your work can focus on either: (1) designing an organization from the ground up to support a new business concept or product, or (2) evaluating and refining the design choices that managers of an existing business have made to implement their strategy. At various points in the course, you will be asked to hand in short summaries of your analysis and recommendations. The last few sessions of the course will be devoted to working in small groups to review and complete your strategy implementation plan.