Under the frame of What Really Works, a not-for-profit organization in Vietnam is analyzed

1. LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
What really works: Understanding &
explaining organizational success
Lecturer: Derek Thitsanuthit
Tran Gia Thoai s3372716
Vuong Gia Bao s3374021
Nguyen Dang Thanh Hung s3221642

2. Content
 Introduction of 4+2 formula
• Origin
• 8 practices
 Applying to BSA - a local business
 Strengths and Weaknesses of 4+2
 Suggestions
• How to use
• A revised and improved formula
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3. The 4+2 Formula
• From Evergreen Project (1986-1996)
• Authors: William F. Joyce, Nitin Nohria,
Bruce Roberson
• Methodology: mainly statistics and
interviewing
• Result: 8 common practices for success
• Implication: applying 4 primary and 2 of 4
secondary practices
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4. The 8 Practices
Primary:
Strategy Execution
Culture Structure
Secondary:
Talent Innovation
Leadership Mergers & Partnerships
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5. The Leader’s Background
Ms VŨ KIM HẠNH
• Editor-in-chief of Tuổi Trẻ newspaper (1990s)
• Director of ITPC of Ho Chi Minh city until 2007
• Founder of Vietnam’s High Quality Goods
program
• Founder and Director of Business Studies &
Assistance Centre (BSA)
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6. Primary Practices
1. Strategy
• Clear value proposition & Good outside-in development
• Developing responsiveness to external feedbacks.
Figure 1: Sources of information
Government
Policies
Market INFORMATION
Projects’
movements results
Customers’
operation
(Source: Reproduced from the interview with Ms Hanh)
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7. Figure 2: How BSA come up with services?
Experts
Draft Plan
ACTION
Plan
Customers
(Source: Reproduced from the interview with Ms Hanh)
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8. Primary Practices
2. Execution
 Services tailored to meet customer expectation.
- Standardisation
- Full time employment vs Part-time specialists
 Partial empowerment
- Ms Hanh: whether a project should be conducted,
continued or changed.
- Project managers: how to use resources for the project
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9. Primary Practices
3. Culture Source: Reproduced from the interview with Ms Hanh
BSA provides
Finance
Information Performance
1
Passion
Networking G
opportunities A
P Recognition
Supporting
facilities Performance Career path
2
Employees’
Finance
expectation
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10. Primary Practices
4. Structure
Director Experts
HR Project
manager 1
Finance
Project
manager 2
Accountant
Project
Communication manager 3
Source: Reproduced from the interview with Ms Hanh

11. Secondary Practices
Talent
• Plans to develop employees, but
• Unsuccessful internal promotion
• Inefficient training programs
Innovation
• First-time projects in Vietnam, and
• Terminate inefficient ones after 3 unsuccessful attempts
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12. Secondary Practices
Mergers and Partnerships
• Win-win approach
• Joint resources
• Focus on developing core competency
Leadership
• Performance-based payment
• Relationship-development focus
• Ability to realise and respond to changes
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13. Conclusion from the interview
Practice Policy Implementation
STRATEGY good good
EXECUTION good average
CULTURE good poor
STRUCTURE good good
TALENT good average
LEADERSHIP good good
INNOVATION good average
MERGERS & PARNERSHIPS good good
STRATEGY LEADERSHIP
2+2 Mergers & Partnerships
STRUCTURE
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14. Strengths of 4+2
• Based on statistics.
• Easy to understand and get the points.
• Some practical examples provided.
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15. Weaknesses of 4+2
• Credibility of theory (correlation & causal relationships
problem, methodology, qualitative issues, narrow
definition of success).
• Not action-oriented
• LEADERSHIP is more important than stated in 4+2
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16. Suggestions
• Only a tool - not a definite answer
• Reference only
• Still useful to reflect on performance
• Consider other theories to build holistic action plans.
• To sufficiently emphasize the vital role of Leadership, the formula
should be changed to 1+4+1, with Leadership at the core of an
organization's operation.
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17. 1+4+1 formula
LEADERSHIP
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18. Conclusion
• In general, 4+2 formula apply to our interviewee
but not all of them.
• Most people know but not everyone can do.
• Framework to evaluate how a business is being
managed.
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19. References
• Nohria N., Joyce W., Roberson B. 2003 What really works? The 4+2
formula for sustained business success”, HarperCollins, New York
• Nohria N., Joyce W., Roberson B. 2003 ‘What really works?’
Harvard Business Review, July, pp43-52
• The Complexities of Business, BUSM2411_4000 Leadership and
Management (MBA), RMIT International University, unpublished.
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