High Performers Down Under: Lessons from Australia's Winning Companies

Graeme Cocks, Melbourne Business School

Abstract

Drawing on the results of a major 4 year empirical study, this paper identifies the common attributes of eleven of Australia’s long-term high performing organisations. The research involved a survey over 1000 senior executives to identify these organisations and covers the period from 1982 to 2007. It dispels several current myths about the characteristics of winning organisations and identifies how these differ from USA studies. Nine key elements for long-term success have been identified: effective execution, perfect alignment, adapting rapidly, clear and fuzzy strategy, leadership not leaders, looking out and looking in, right people, managing the downside and balancing everything. This paper discusses these elements in detail and presents them as a “Winning Wheel” framework for achieving sustainable organisational excellence. To be a winning organisation, all elements need to be in place and linked together – change in one precipitates change to others. The framework can be applied to organisations of all types including listed, private, not-for-profit and public sector. The research findings provide leaders and leadership teams in with practical concepts for the design and implementation of an effective organisational-wide improvement program that enhances their organisation’s performance.