RGM

Christoph Papenfuss at The Performance Ideas blog discussed the Discovery-Driven planning approach at length: "A few weeks ago I researched ideas for improving current planning and forecasting approaches. I stumbled upon a methodology that I had long forgotten. It is called ‘Discovery-driven planning’ and it was developed by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan. The idea was first published in the July 1995 issue of the Harvard Business Review. While I do not want to go into any details of this approach, I do highly recommend reading the original article. It is very inspiring and thought-provoking. Today, I want to look at some lessons that we can apply to our forecasting and planning processes." To read the entire post, click here.

• Posted: Monday, July 02, 2012

Discovery-driven planning by Ian MacMillian and Rita McGrath: Ask yourself what assumptions have to prove true for you to be happy in the choice you are contemplating. Are you basing your position on extrinsic or intrinsic motivators? Why do you think this is going to be something you enjoy doing? What evidence do you have? To read the entire post, click here.

• Posted: Wednesday, June 27, 2012

One of the great things about being associated with a leading Business School is the wide range of activities and organizations that contribute to its vitality. I was reminded of this when reading the Columbia Media Forum's recent newsletter.

Among other things, the newsletter summarized some key ideas that were presented at the Media Forum's annual conference, at which I was a guest.

• Posted: Friday, June 22, 2012

Rita McGrath was quoted in this Chicago Tribune article about employee likeability:

"In general, empathy, connection, willingness to listen are all associated with likeability," she summarizes. Gunther McGrath tells of a senior executive who received dreadful scores on the likeability/informality dimension of a 360-degree feedback and couldn't understand why. After observing his patterns of interaction, he received two suggestions for simple changes in behavior. First, instead of following the same path to and from the office each day, vary it so that he would interact with more people and be personally visible to more people. Second, instead of eating lunch at his desk and working, make a point of eating in the cafeteria and being available to people.

• Posted: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Fox Business News quoted Rita McGrath extensively in their article on Writing a Customer Survey: Your first step toward writing an effective customer survey should be to establish a clearly defined set of objectives, according to Rita McGrath, associate professor at Columbia Business School. "Your goals for the survey must be clear because this will guide your choice of questions and allow you to eliminate irrelevant or non-central points," she explains. "This will also allow you to do a better job of piloting because you'll be clear on whether the survey is delivering to your goals or not."

and

Finally, McGrath notes the importance of identifying the correct demographic for your survey. "You should also try to make sure that your respondents are representative of the population you are trying to learn about," she says. "If you only survey a sub-sample, you are apt to get skewed results which are not useful in making decisions."

To read the entire post, click here.

• Posted: Monday, June 11, 2012

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