AWWA JTMGT61353

For the past five years, Spartanburg Water System and Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District (SWS/SSSD), located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has been conducting strategic planning on an annual basis. Although the program has been very successful in leading major changes and enhancing business efficiencies, it was the desire of senior management to move the organization to a new level. A team of students from the Executive MBA program at Wake Forest University reviewed the strategic planning process, interviewed the staff, and conducted benchmarking with other utilities in the Southeast. Their results showed a high-performance organization that needed to align their strategic planning process and metrics more closely. As a result of the recommendations, SWS/SSSD has become a more strategy-focused organization and has reached a new level in competitive performance. The SWS/SSSD management team committed to the five principles that permit organizations to become strategy-focused that include the following: mobilize change through executive leadership; translate strategy into operating terms; align the organization with the strategy; make strategy everyone's job; and, make formulating strategy a continual process. As a result of its commitment to these five principles, SWS/SSSD has been able to execute strategies rapidly and effectively. Includes figures.