The Journey to TruePoint

Two streams of strategic management research and practice converged to create what today is TruePoint.

In 1984, as Harvard Business School professors, Michael Beer and Russell Eisenstat began more than five years of intensive research into large-scale corporate change efforts at a half-dozen companies. This study led, in 1990, to publication of their landmark book The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal. The book’s core message: corporate change initiatives don’t work when they are staff- or consultant-driven; rather, the fundamental engines for successful transformation are line managers — who build critical organizational capabilities and commitment while leading the way to enhanced business results.

Also in the late 1980s, in a related collaboration with the leaders of medical products company Becton Dickinson, Mike and Russ developed the strategic learning and alignment methodology now known as the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP). In the past 15 years, SFP has been implemented at upwards of 200 business organizations.

In the 1990s, TruePoint’s predecessor organization, the Center for Organizational Fitness (COF), began working with a growing number of companies that used our SFP methodology as a platform for leading change. Applying the insights of The Critical Path while leveraging the SFP methodology, COF avoided large consulting programs and tightly focused its engagements around enabling leaders to transform both performance and the capabilities needed to sustain that performance.

With the evolution of COF into TruePoint we are furthering our commitment to help senior leaders build organizations that achieve sustained high performance and commitment. To deliver against this aspiration we’ve brought together a diverse team of experienced advisors as TruePoint Partners, enabling us to provide the range of capabilities required.

Moreover, in launching the TruePoint Center for High Performance and High Commitment, we’re formalizing our longtime commitment to building a rigorous, evidence-based practice. TruePoint Center serves as the anchor for our research activities while fostering a growing community of like-minded company leaders and researchers who pursue sustained high performance and stakeholder commitment.