National built its new strategic management
system step-by-step over 30 months, with
each step representing an incremental improvement.
(See the chart “How One Company
Built a Strategic Management System.”)
The iterative sequence of actions enabled the
company to reconsider each of the four new
management processes two or three times before
the system stabilized and became an established
part of National’s overall management
system. Thus the CEO was able to
transform the company so that everyone could
focus on achieving long-term strategic objectives—
something that no purely financial
framework could do.