Scott Keller & Colin Price 
Beyond Performance 
How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage

The secret of achieving and sustaining organizational excellence
revealed

In an ever-changing world where only a third of excellent
organizations stay that way over the long term, and where even
fewer are able to implement successful change programs, leaders are
in need of big ideas and new tools to thrive. In Beyond
Performance, Mc Kinsey & Company’s Scott Keller and Colin
Price give you everything you need to build an organization that
can execute in the short run and has the vitality to prosper
over the long term.

Drawing on the most exhaustive research effort of its kind on
organizational effectiveness and change management, Keller and
Price put hard science behind their big idea: that the health of an
organization is equally as important as its performance. In the
book’s foreword, management guru Gary Hamel refers to this notion
as ‘a new manifesto for thinking about organizations.’

* The authors illustrate why copying management best practices
from other companies is more dangerous than helpful

* Clearly explains how to determine the mutually reinforcing
combination of management practices that best fits your
organization’s context

* Provides practical tools to achieve superior levels of
performance and health through a staged change process: aspire,
assess, architect, act, and advance. Among these are new techniques
for dealing with those aspects of human behavior that are seemingly
irrational (and therefore confound even the smartest leaders), yet
entirely predictable

Ultimately, building a healthy organization is an intangible
asset that competitors copy at their peril and that enables you to
skillfully adapt to and shape your environment faster than
others–giving you the ultimate competitive advantage.

Table of Content

Foreword ix

INTRODUCTION Excellence Found? Xiii
Only a third of organizations both achieve and sustain excellence.Why so few? People have been working together formillennia–you’d think we’d be better at it bynow. And what’s the cost to business and society thatwe’re not?

PART I WHY PERFORMANCE IS NOT ENOUGH

CHAPTER 1 The Big Idea: Performance and Health 3

Performance is about delivering financial results in the hereand now. Health is about the ability to do it year in, year out.The two are not the same. Some companies have neither; others havejust one. The ultimate competitive advantage lies in having both.But how?

CHAPTER 2 The Science: Hard Facts behind the Soft Stuff25

Health is every bit as measurable as performance. The path tohealth is just as clear as that to performance. The most exhaustiveresearch ever undertaken in the field tells us so. Is a change inmanagement accounting called for?

PART II THE FIVE FRAMES

CHAPTER 3 Aspire: Where Do We Want to Go? 47

Should we put more emphasis on short-term goals or long-termvision? Actually, it’s the medium term that matters most. Isthere a recipe for success? In fact, there are four. Discover whata lottery ticket has to do with deciding which one is right foryour organization.

CHAPTER 4 Assess: How Ready Are We to Go There? 77

You know where you want to go, but does your organization havethe will and the skills to get there?
Finding out isn’t easy, but it is possible. Understand howthrough lessons learned from running a four-minute mile andobserving disenfranchised monkeys.

CHAPTER 5 Architect: What Do We Need to Do to Get There?109 Now it’s time to plan the journey to achieve yourgoals.
Working out what to do to improve performance isn’tenough–you need to decide what not to do aswell.
And designing the how just as thoughtfully as thewhat will be the key to unlocking better health.

CHAPTER 6 Act: How Do We Manage the Journey? 155

Staying the course requires flexibility–adjusting as yougo. Understand a tale of two pilots, put in place the rightstructure, and measure the right things. You’ll needextraordinary amounts of energy, so use both military and marketingtactics to drive ownership.

CHAPTER 7 Advance: How Do We Keep Moving Forward? 177

Now what? Keep changing! Once you’ve built theinfrastructure for continuous improvement and the leadershipcompetencies to drive your organization forward, change will comenaturally. Ultimate competitive advantage is yours.

PART III PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

CHAPTER 8 The Senior Leader’s Role: Does Change Have to Start at the Top? 203

The senior leader casts a long shadow. The road to success isimmeasurably easier if they embrace the role that only they canplay. That means making it personal, getting the right team inplace, and applying the right levels of challenge and support.

CHAPTER 9 The Five Frames in Action: How Do You Make a Great Organization Even Better? 219

It’s one thing to face the challenge of turning around astruggling organization. But how do you set about transforming whenlife is good? Follow one company as it makes its journey throughthe five frames.

CHAPTER 10 Making It Happen: Do You Have What It Takes?231

Now you’ve got the knowledge, what are you going to dowith it? Start by getting a firm grip on your organization’sperformance and health. Then work through the five frames. If theodds of becoming and staying excellent are to improve, it startswith you.

Notes 243

Recommended Reading 261

Acknowledgments 263

About the Authors 269

Index 271

About the author

Scott Keller is a director in the Southern California office
of Mc Kinsey & Company, and leads its transformational change
practice inthe Americas. He has published several articles on
change management and organizational behavior, as well as a book
for colleagues and clients. He holds an MBA and a BS in mechanical
engineering from the University of Notre Dame and has worked as a
manufacturing manager with Procter & Gamble and a photovoltaic
engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy. Outside Mc Kinsey, Scott
is a cofounder of Digital Divide Data, an award-winning social
enterprise that utilizes a sustainable IT service model to benefit
some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.

Colin Price is a director in Mc Kinsey’s London office,
and leads its organization practice worldwide. He has advised many
of the world’s largest corporations, several national governments,
and a number of charitable institutions. His booksinclude Mergers
(with his colleague David Fubini and Maurizio Zollo of INSEAD), and
Vertical Take-Off (with Sir Richard Evans, former chairman
of British Aerospace). He holds degrees in economics, industrial
relations and psychology, and organizational behavior. He is an
associate fellow at Saïd Business School, University of
Oxford, and a visiting professor at Bath University.