The QIP component of the strategic plan was deeply
rooted in a document called The
Analog Devices Corporate Objective. I've always viewed it as Analog's
articulation of its Vision and Mission. It's not your typical set of ubiquitous
one-liners; instead, it identifies Analog's stakeholders and succinctly
describes the company's specific commitment
to each of them. In effect, it segments each of the stakeholder groups by
identifying which segments it has chosen to serve. Later attempts to replace it with more traditional vision
and mission statements proved ineffectual. It is prerequisite reading for
an understanding of how Analog forged the linkage between its performance measurement and strategy.
The Analog
Devices Corporate Objective was first created by Ray Stata in the mid-1970’s.
He was strongly influenced by a similar document developed earlier at
Hewlett-Packard, a long-time role model and strategic partner of ADI. It
underwent periodic “fine tuning,” usually after completion of a
new five-year strategic plan. The
version shown here was published in May of 1985. The highlighted text was modified in October of 1989, based
on the 1988-1992 Strategic Plan. The changes reflect
refinements in Analog’s strategy, uncertainty as to appropriate financial goals,
and some minor clarification in the wording. Taken
together, they describe Analog’s Corporate Objective during my tenure from 1986
through 1992.
The Corporate Objective
Adobe
Acrobat Format (.pdf, 40k)
MS
Word Format (.doc, 80k)
Plain text
(.htm, 24k)
This document provided me with the necessary context for
identifying the vital few non-financial performance measurements that would
be the focal point of my contribution to the strategic plan. The first step in
this process was to look for a common thread that ran through Analog's commitments
to each of its stakeholders. I concluded that that thread was achievement
of three basic business objectives: