“What differentiates organizations that can innovate from those that can’t? Innovating – introducing new products, entering new markets, revitalizing the business – fine tunes an organization’s strengths or showcases its failings. Success results from a balance of ‘focus’ and ‘function’ – clear intention and conscious implementation. In today’s shifting marketplace, organizations must adapt to this reality or die."

John G. Mathers, Principal Consultant
Grinnell Scott & Associates, Inc.

Grinnell Scott & Associates, Inc. partners with management teams and executives to create fast and flexible organizations capable of sustainable results. Sustainable corporate results are at the center of most consulting practices, and yet performance continues to be cyclical as management theories come and go.

Based on decades of experiential research with hundreds of companies and thousands of executives and their teams, Grinnell Scott & Associates has developed and tested a few key practices to ensure sustainable performance. Called Focus Management, these practices the careful and continuous balance of a corporation’s focus and function.  This balancing act derives from the basic natures of function (right action through structure and systems) and focus (group intention and rational action).  Business success is based on establishing the context or focus and allowing function to flow from it.  With focus as the foundation, an organization is designed around measurable and sustainable marketplace outcomes. 

For a more detailed description of the concept and its application, please review Introduction to Focus Management.

Focus Management can be defined as the careful and continuous balancing of a corporation’s focus and function. This balancing act derives from the basic natures of function (right action through structure and systems) and focus (group intention and rational action). Business success is based on establishing the context or focus and allowing function to flow from it. If function is the only driver then action is determined by hierarchical political needs rather than market demands. With focus as the foundation, the organization is designed around measurable and sustainable marketplace outcomes. Businesses thrive based on their ability to continuously transform themselves to maintain their focus. The corporate dance of focus and function is always the choice and responsibility of individual managers – choices designed primarily to move an organization toward marketplace results or personal power. While this concept is not new, the practices of creating high performance organizations are often poorly utilized or left aside altogether.