Cracking the Code behind the World's Strongest Companies

New Report Examines the DNA of High-Performing Organizations

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Mar 23, 2015, 12:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On the surface, a list of the most admired companies worldwide reveals few common denominators: They include hedge funds and hamburger chains; sell computers, cars, and credit cards; are headquartered everywhere from Singapore to Silicon Valley, Munich to Minneapolis. Examine their corporate cultures, however, and a set of basic building blocks—a shared DNA—emerges that links high-performing organizations across industries and geographies, imparting a lasting adaptive advantage over the competition.

In DNA of High-Performing Organizations, The Conference Board set out to systematically map this genome of cultural assets, tracing their expression in particular global leaders to reveal how all organizations can evolve toward a culture of higher performance. The research authors began by cross-referencing 11 annual rankings of companies from public sources including Fortune, Forbes, and Bloomberg. They identified as high-performing organizations those that were ranked as leaders in both financial performance and people management; just 56 companies met these criteria. The resulting report, released today, is based on a detailed survey of 76 executives at 27 of those companies.

"In today's globalized competitive environment, a huge array of measures—from market capitalization to employee engagement scores—is available to evaluate a company's success," said Rebecca Ray, executive vice president, knowledge organization for The Conference Board and a co-author of the report. "But such numbers alone reveal little about how an organization succeeds—or fails—in adapting to change, developing new capabilities, and executing its long-term strategy. DNA of High-Performing Organizations provides a deeper and more holistic picture, drawing on specific insights, examples, struggles, and successes from companies that have maintained an extraordinary level of execution over time."

"FedEx and Coca-Cola, or Target and American Express, would seem to offer little shared insight into excelling in each other's businesses," said Amy Lui Abel, managing director of human capital research at The Conference Board and a co-author of the report. "However, our survey of executives at those four high-performing organizations, and 23 others, revealed a layer of meaningful commonality underlying their success. While the DNA of every high-performance culture is unique, they rest on a common catalog of 'genetic' elements that proactive leaders will identify, adapt, and incorporate into their own company's identity."

In addition to details drawn from survey responses, DNA of High-Performing Organizations includes in-depth profiles of four high-performing organizations—The Coca-Cola Company, Target, FedEx, and American Express—as well as a diagnostic tool to measure adherence to the key strategies ranked by the surveyed executives. These 15 top strategies encompass three common "DNA elements":

Effective and efficient alignment of resources to execute business strategies

Create a culture of rigor and standards for financial stability
Require process around fiscal management, oversight, and decision making
Execute strategies in an operationally efficiently manner
Align organizational structure to support business strategy
Create/maintain a culture of accountability

Strong focus on the customer

Delivery high-quality products/services
Create a strong customer-centric culture
Focus organization's process and products toward customer needs

Organizational capability to support critical business objectives

Attract and retain talent through strong brand/reputation
Provide leaning and development opportunities to employees at all levels
Require managers to set clear goals and manage performance
Raise employee engagement to drive productivity
Develop a global mindset among leaders
Align rewards and recognition to support business strategy
Help managers create effective teams

For complete details:
http://www.conference-board.org/high-performing-organization/

Report: DNA of High-Performing Organizations
(Research Report R-1576-15-RR)
By Rebecca L. Ray, PhD and Amy Lui Abel, PhD, with Amanda Popiela

About The Conference Board
The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

SOURCE The Conference Board