Customer Reviews

Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management

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Many senior-level executives are about to launch or are now in the midst of performance improvement initiatives of one kind or another such as TQM, Lean, Six Sigma, or some variation thereof. For them especially, the material that Bob Paladino provides in this book will be of substantial value because he offers a remarkably comprehensive briefing on all manner of best practices from a variety of sources which include the U.S. President's Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award recipients, the Kaplan and Norton Global Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame inductees, recipients of the Deming Quality Award, Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For," Best Practice Partner Award recipients selected by APQC (previously known as the American Productivity Center and the American Productivity & Quality Center), and Forbes magazine's "Best Managed Companies." From this abundance of information, Paladino has identified "five key principles" that, in my opinion, are relevant to any organization (regardless of size or nature) that is committed to producing more and better results in less time, and at a lower cost. Hence the importance of effective corporate performance management (CPM).

He carefully organizes his material within nine chapters, devotes a separate chapter to each principle, and then in the final chapter provides a three-step "CPM Diagnostic" to conduct a self-assessment and baseline where each reader is at this point in her or his corporate performance management "journey." (Paladino's choice of the word "journey" is appropriate, given the fact that performance improvement initiatives are best viewed as a "marathon" rather than as a "sprint.") I especially appreciate Paladino's brilliant use of a lean best practice case study approach to strategy management to bring together disparate methods into an integrated, simplified CPM framework.

In fact, most case studies are segmented and extended within Chapters 3-9, coordinated with his focus on a separate best practice in each chapter. The commendably varied exemplar (i.e. high performance) organizations include Crown Castle International, the City of Coral Springs (FL), the Tennessee Valley Authority, LB Foster Company, the American Red Cross, Ricoh, and Sprint Nextel. Supplementary case studies include those of the Florida Department of Health (Chapter 6), Houston Chronicle (Chapter 7), and Raytheon Company (Chapter 8). Important lessons can be learned from these high-performance organizations, lessons that can help others to avoid becoming one of the nine of ten that fail to implement their business strategies.

Paladino cites the results of rigorous and extensive research conducted by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton that reveals four common barriers: vision (only 5% of the workforce understands the strategy), management (only 15% of executive teams spend more than one hour per month discussing strategy), people (only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy), and resources (only 40% of organizations link budgets to strategy). To repeat, important lessons can be learned from these high-performance organizations, lessons that can help others to avoid becoming one of the nine of ten that fail to implement their business strategies.

Whether or not decision-makers who read this book learn these lessons and then take appropriate action in response to them is, of course, for them to decide. There's "bad news" and "good news." First the bad news: Most probably won't. Now the good news: Most probably won't.

So many of the business books available today are written by authors with little practical experience to back them up. It's very easy to come up with a theoretical approach to improving business performance. The problem is, most theories don't account for the realities of the business environment that only real-life, in-the-trenches experience teaches. Instead of selling an approach to performance management developed in an academic or theoretical environment, Bob Paladino has instead brought to this book real-world examples of how actual companies, by applying his five key principles, have achieved measurable and ongoing success. The book is straight-forward, and offers a broad-enough cross sampling of case studies that the reader is able to find commonality to which they can link their own efforts at performance management. Clearly not a one-size fits all approach, but rather practical advice from someone who's been there before, and succeeded at achieving measurable and lasting results.

Whether you have been engaged directly in organizational performance management for years or are seeking an introduction to the topic, this book should be extremely valuable. It is clear that the author has many years of "hands on" and practical experience yet he also puts forth a comprehensive and excellent conceptual model of performance management.

The book is both stimulating and a fun read. While other books may go into a great amount of detail on particular aspects of performance management, the author stays at a level that holds the attention of the reader while providing ample real life examples to make the material understandable.

This is probably the first book to complete the circle of organizational performance management in such a comprehensive manner. What I found especially helpful was that the author taps into the knowledge from a variety of quality and performance management organizations.

Highly recommended.

First off, let me say that Bob Paladino is a 5 star speaker and instructor. If you ever have an opportunity to see Bob in person, please make the effort to do so. He brings the material to life in a way that is engaging, thought provoking and very useful.

His book is also a great tool, and my rating may be somewhat biased by the fact that having seen Bob a couple of times cover much of the same material in person,the book is just a tad tougher to grasp - and that may be because the presentation in person is so good. Also, in order to get the most out of the book, some prep work is required - so the book really can't stand alone.

Bob does a great job of not only presenting the five key components to Corporate Performance Management (CPM), but does so with both theory and case studies. In the book, each of the five principles are covered sequentially, with recurring appearances by various award winning companies in case studies.

In order for Bob's book to be of full use, you really need to be familiar with Kaplan and Noron's Balanced Scorecard methodology, and it is helpful if you have working knowledge of Six Sigma as well.

The message - which comes across with clarity, is that CPM is a continuous process, and success is garnered through the application of five key principles, which are co-dependent. Ignorance of one or more of the principles invites failure.

Bob moves past Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma theories to discuss practical implementation of the principles, and leans heavily on examples in the case studies to both provide understanding and provoke thought in your own implementation.

By all means, see Bob in person if you can. If you are going to work in a CPM organization or are contemplating implementation, read Kaplan and Norton and some Six Sigma material first. Then, absolutely, read this book. Bob's book will help knit the process together.

This books is perfect for managers trying to achieve a real world class performance management from their business. It teaches you the whole procedure working over the same subject over and over until you see the process very clear. (using always different enriching real life samples). Lots of clarifying tables and diagrams. Excellent book, simple, practical.
Details to the point you need them to be.

While not particularly aimed at government managers, this book contains many ideas that could help improve performance in all types of government. Several of the cases he cites (including a state division, a public authority, and a city government) show how the principles of corporate performance management can be applied in the public sector. Through these tools, public organizations can improve performance and transparency, building trust with their constituents.

The book is rich in practical advice and Bob's experience in the field allows him to draw interesting conclusions from comparing a variety of top-performing organizations.

It is great to have a book written by, and includes further advice from, people that actually do this kind of work on a day-to-day basis. I've read just about all the books and articles on what a Balanced Scorecard is, should be, and could be. But what I was missing is some solid and grounded insights about how to make this work when your in the trenches trying to make this a concept a great success and of great value to your company. I find the straightforward insights woven into a simple framework that I can remember easily a great help. When you're in the midst of this kind of work, making decisions and judgments almost every hour it seems, I find myself being able to quickly think back to the model and ask: "Where does this fit?" and "What am I missing?".

I am further encouraged because I've had the opportunity to hear Bob present at a couple conferences. He's down to earth, friendly, and full of real world experience that I, quite frankly, have come to trust him and his advice. I believe that he wants this to be successful for those who want to learn and excel at this. I don't believe that there is any one sole reference that you can use to be successful, but none of us has the time or capacity to remember it all either. I find that you pick up a couple solid sources of guidance, follow them earnestly, and success is there for everyone - this is one of those sources. Get it, Read it, Do it... We'll read about your success in Bob's next book!!

Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) is an excellent book for you if you are looking to improve business performance by installing CPM processes and tools or for refining your existing processes and tools. While so many books talk and remain at at a high level, and make no mistake the five key principles provide a strong model for implementing CPM, Bob Paladino provides real-life examples that show the model has been proven and tested. The examples also serve to help customize your implementation of the the five key principles for the unique challenges and strengths of your organization.

Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management builds and extends on the proven Kaplan/Norton Strategy Focused Organization methodology. If you are interested in vastly improving your corporate performance using proven methodology and information gathered from real-world implementations, I highly recommend this book.

Bob Paladino adeptly utilizes award winning companies to illustrate the implementation of the 5 Key Principles. The easy to follow exhibits and best practice sidebars included provide additional support and illustration to the cases.

Bob emphasizes the importance of a dedicated CPM office, as well as tips on dealing with corporate silos and cross functional cooperation to address the key concepts necessary to reach strategic goals.

This book is an outstanding reference and primer for both executives, consultants, and students to better understand the necessary practices to achieve process excellence and ultimately financial success.

Using the Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management, Bob Paladino provides a valuable framework that organizations can employ to design and execute for optimal corporate business performance. The true value of this book, however, is that it goes beyond management theory. Much of this book is devoted to providing case studies of how a range of public and private organizations embraced these principles and tailored them to work effectively within their individual corporate cultures. As someone who served as a chief performance officer at Crown Castle, Bob also has first-hand experience putting these principles into action and shares his experiences with the reader.