Mohan Nair 
Strategic Business Transformation 
The 7 Deadly Sins to Overcome

Strategic Business Transformation The seven deadly sins to
overcome

What can Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela teach us about
running businesses that face transformation in their markets. This
book courageously offers that businesses that transform markets or
respond to transformation know that they must transform themselves
before they transform others. Great companies find a
cause greater than themselves, organizes this cause into executable
momentum and conquers the imagination of the market.

Transforming your business requires a recipe powered by a cause
not missions. Read and see how and why.

Table of Content

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Chapter 1 Overview 1

Strategy and Strategic Business Transformation 2

Why Another Book on Strategy? 4

If Dinosaurs Had Strategy Tools, Would They Have Survived? 5

Predicting Market Transformation 7

What is Strategic Business Transformation? 12

Importance of the Transformation Effect 15

Markets in Transformation are Re-creating Themselves 16

Summary and Observations 17

Notes 17

Chapter 2 Strategic Business Transformation: Seven Sins to Overcome 19

Ignoring the New Principles of Business Transformation 22

Driving without a Cause 23

Missing Market Momentum 24

Ignoring the Two Orders of Value 24

Overlooking Transformational Servant Leadership 26

Mistaking Capability for Strategic Competence 27

Expecting Flawless Execution without a Performance Platform 28

Seven Sins as a Framework for Strategic Business Transformation 29

Summary and Observations 29

Notes 30

Chapter 3 Sin #1: Ignoring the New Principles of Business Transformation 33

Aligning Transformational Leadership with Corporate Strategy 34

Gaining Integrated Strategic Insight with Transformational Leadership 36

Linking Strategic Insight with Servant Leadership 43

Summary and Observations 45

Notes 45

Chapter 4 Sin #2: Driving without a Cause 47

Transformation Needs Momentum, Not Movement 48

Death of Mission; Birth of Cause 49

Where Do Causes Come From? 53

Can an Organization Transform Markets without a Cause? 54

Summary and Observations 55

Notes 56

Chapter 5 Sin #3: Missing Market Momentum 57

Why is Momentum in Markets Important? 58

Measuring Momentum of Markets and Companies 58

What is Strategic Business Momentum? 59

New Customers in Old Clothing 67

Summary and Observations 72

Notes 73

Chapter 6 Sin #4: Ignoring the Two Orders of Value 75

Low-Order Value 78

Symbolic Value Propositions 81

Summary and Observations 83

Notes 84

Chapter 7 Sin #5: Overlooking Transformational Servant Leadership 85

Increasing Our Choices of Transformational Leaders 88

The Era of the Transformational Leader 90

What is Transformational Servant Leadership? 94

Are Transformational Servant Leaders Born or Made? 103

Conditions That Bring Out Transformational Servant Leaders 105

Diary of a Transformational Servant Leader 115

Summary and Observations 117

Notes 118

Chapter 8 Sin #6: Mistaking Capability for Strategic Competency 119

Strategy as a Portfolio of Competencies 120

Identifying, Isolating, and Enabling Core Competencies 120

Difference between Recipe (Competency) and Ingredient (Capability) 122

Finding the Positive ‘Aftertaste’ for Customers 123

Key Capabilities for Transforming Markets 125

Summary and Observations 142

Notes 143

Chapter 9 Sin #7: Expecting Flawless Execution without a Performance Platform 145

Two Elements of a Performance Platform 146

Four Dimensions of Corporate Performance Management 146

Educating the Enterprise about Transformation with an Eye to the Dominant Subsystem 149

Understanding the Organizational Dominant Subsystem Demands Observations 151

People Subsystem 152

Technology Subsystem 157

Process Subsystem 158

Basics of Business Intelligence 159

Summary and Observations 177

Notes 180

Chapter 10 Tales of Transformation 183

Tri Quint Semiconductor 183

Starbucks 184

Southwest Airlines 186

Les Schwab Tires 189

Markets in Transformation or Ready for Transformation 191

Notes 196

Glossary 199

Suggested Reading 205

About the Author 209

Index 211

About the author

MOHAN NAIR is Chief Innovation Officer of a health plan in the Northwest/Mountain region. He founded Emerge Inc., a transformation advisory firm, in 1993 and is the former director and president of ABC Technologies Inc. He has authored two books on cost and performance management. In 2009, the Marketing Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board highlighted him as a ‘Marketing Thought Leader.’