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The Growth Challenge
     Product line extensions, geographical
     expansion and new technologies and
     adjacencies aren't enough.

Three Significant Gaps
     Performance shortfalls create a "results
     gap." But limitations of growth are caused
     by organizational and process gaps.

Growth Factories
     Building the team and its methods.

Leadership
     The characteristics and processes of an
     "Entrepreneur in Residence."

Qualifying Ideas
     Going beyond the creative into a
     practical and executable model for
     sustained growth.


A Glossary
     Oyster-centric definitions of terms used
     on this site.

Books and Articles
     Back to Books & Articles.

The focus of this research was on what leaders do - their role, work and value added.


Research
The CEO Agenda and Growth
This was a joint research project conducted by the Harvard Business School, INSEAD and Oyster International. The focus of the research was on the growth agendas of CEOs and how these are managed.

Areas explored, findings and conclusions developed include:

Defining the enterprise growth gap (i.e. the gap between what business units can deliver and Board of Directors and CEO expectations;
A framework for closing the growth gap - new growth platforms;
Examples of companies that have successfully developed new growth platforms - how they were developed and executed and the value they created;
Organization design: principles, processes and capabilities required to deliver new growth platforms;
The role, work and value added of leadership in developing and executing new growth platforms;
Why this work is different and difficult;
Getting started.
CEOs in twenty five organizations participated in the research, including: Proctor & Gamble, United Parcel Services, Johnson & Johnson, Thermo Electron, Corning, Becton Dickinson, Teradyne, Raytheon, Timken, Cabot Corporation, Eastman Chemicals, Inverness Medical Innovations, Sealed Air Corporation, Nokia, ST Microelectronics, Computer Associates, and others.

The Work of Leadership
The focus of this research was on what leaders do - their role, work and value added. Also, how they go about their work and where they spend their time.

Areas explored, findings and conclusions developed include the following:

Setting context in large, complex, diverse, organizations; framing the strategic and operating challenges; charting the course forward - leadership to achieve what
Executive Teams

The Executive Teams' collective role, work and value added: what people should say "thank you" for

The control versus creativity tension among executives

Are most executive teams strategic?; do they work effectively as a team?

Priorities and Time

The leaders "top three" priorities

Where do leaders spend their time; where should they spend their time?

The Leadership Agenda
Creating the conditions to achieve the leader's ambition

Tasks, key activities and the mobilization of resourcess

Managing independent activities; framing and addressing strategic, operating and adaptive challenges simultaneously

Five leaders who we admire and what they do well
The Leadership Audit - how well developed is your leadership agenda?
CEOs and other executives who participated in this research were from 30 organizations including Corning, British Telecom, Scandinavian Airlines, British Airways, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Mellon Bank, Nordstrom, Hewlett-Packard, Cable & Wireless, Shell, BP, McKinsey & Co., Philips Electronic, Reebok, and the US Army
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