We started development on what has become Vision2Reality's "No Excuses" Strategy Execution (NESE) process and V2R software back in 1996. John Reichwein the CEO of Revcor, the leading developer and manufacturer of Revolutionary Air Flow solutions, was looking for a better way to drive strategy through my multi-plant manufacturing organization.

We embraced Management-By-Objectives (MBO) back in the late 1980's as our first attempt to formalize our historically Seat-Of-Pants (SOP) management practices. We began tracking Balanced Scorecard metrics in 1991. Our initial attempt at Business Performance Management (BPM) tracked 16 metrics across the four traditional balanced scorecard categories. It took us several years to discover that 16 metrics was too many and that measuring results was much less important than managing improvement. Today we track only 4-5 metrics, but our primary focus is on managing well-defined strategic projects that we believe will result in a sustainable competitive advantage.

Revcor jumped on the 360-degree peer review process in 1992. We again went overkill by assigning 50 different behaviors to all salaried associates. We learned that assigning responsibility to associates for generic behaviors dilutes their focus on the really important strategic initiatives. Today we don't assign any generic behavioral goals. In rare cases, we will assign a specific behavioral goal to an associate that needs development.

We did determine that peer accountability used in the 360-degree review process had merit. Consequently, we developed the BasPac organization structure. The BasPac organization structure is used to achieve peer accountability for goals assigned to associates in V2R.

In 1994, Revcor created Focused Factory Teams. These teams radically improved customer service by breaking down the organizational silos and forcing customer service, scheduling, purchasing, quality, manufacturing engineering and operations to work together. We learned that aligning our organization with the primary value stream that serves our customers adds value. We also learned that it is easier to drive change initiatives that make sense to the associates being asked to change.

We began the original development of the V2R software in 1996. Our goal was to build a strategy execution application that enhanced the MBO process by engaging associates to cascade their company strategy to aligned group tactics and associate level goals. We also developed the ability to assign associate level accountability for balanced scorecard metrics and peer accountability (stakeholders) for rated goals using our unique BasPac organization structure.

The Vision2Reality team has really struggled through the years developing the V2R software. Every development team we worked with radically underestimated the behind the screen complexity necessary to create a user-friendly interface capable of managing the strategy execution process and simultaneously keeping it simple and flexible for the users. As pioneers in this strategy execution space, we developed our unique "No Excuses" process from scratch. Not being experienced software developers made this an even greater struggle.

We are proud of the powerful V2R software application combined with our "No Excuses" Strategy Execution process that our efforts have evolved to today. Our internal development team working with Revcor's practitioners is committed to quarterly enhancements of the V2R software that supports our Best-of-Breed "No Excuses" process. Our solution did not evolve from an attempt to solve another business problem. The V2R software was created to guide organizations through a formal strategy execution process and help organizations translate their strategic vision to reality. Twelve years later we remain true to this goal.