For any organization to perform and compete successfully, it must have the systems and processes in place to translate goals into achievable actions-and measure and monitor results. Moreover, the organization must be able to adjust and adapt as market conditions, government regulations, personnel, and other variables evolve, sometimes gradually and sometimes dramatically. In Delivering Results: Measuring What Matters, Babson College professors and management consultants, Lawrence Carr and Alfred Nanni, take a holistic systems approach to organizational management, with an emphasis on aligning internal resources, in the context of the external environment, to achieve goals with little wasted effort or energy. The primary active mechanism in this approach is communication. Using feedback, a manager may measure the magnitudes of strategically-important performance improvements, assess causes and effects, learn how to make effective improvements, and motivate people to take actions that lead to those improvements. But only when all the parts of the management system line up can feedback be harnessed to encourage behavior that delivers strategic results.

"For any organization to perform and compete successfully, it must have the systems and processes in place to translate goals into achievable actions-and to measure and monitor results. Moreover, the organization must be able to adjust and adapt as market conditions, technologies, the competitive environment, government regulations, personnel, and other variables evolve, sometimes gradually and sometimes dramatically.In Delivering Results: Measuring What Matters, Babson College professors and management consultants, Lawrence Carr and Alfred Nanni, show managers how to avoid the common pitfalls and mistakes when setting corporate strategy, and instead create a management system-unique to their organization-that aligns internal resources with objectives, motivates and rewards employees, and continuously provides feedback. Illustrating their concepts with numerous real-life examples (both successes and failures), practical tools and models, and a glossary of key terms, the authors demonstrate that knowing how to create and direct management systems that deliver results is, in itself, a strategic resource."

I: Delivering Results - Strategy and Execution.- Management as a System.- The Key to Delivering Results.- II: Delivering Results - The Operational Context.- Delivering Results Context.- Organizational Fitness: Culture and Values.- Internal Strategy: Governance Structure.- Internal Strategy: Organizational Structure.- III: Measuring What Matters.- Performance Measurement Systems.- Aligning the MSDR Measurement System with Strategy.- Gaining Strategic Alignment.- Performance and Rewards.- Management as a System: Executing Strategy Through the MSDR.