Developing the organization's productivity strategy in various sectors of industry

Purpose – The paper aims to present an approach to improve the organisation's productivity which is applicable in every industrial sector. The nucleus of the approach is to develop an optimal productivity strategy in an organization by the application of a uniform static model of productivity (Q4‐model), covering quantity and quality aspects and applicable to various sectors of industry, and a dynamic control cycle. Design/methodology/approach – The study discusses the steps of the approach and presents three case studies from different industrial sectors where the approach has been applied. Findings – The approach has proven to be uniformly applicable in all three cases from these different sectors, namely consultancy, health care and manufacturing. Across these applications highly different productivity‐related challenges, productivity strategies, and specific interventions are described in the perspective of the Q4‐model. Research limitations/implications – The approach is not made for measuring the quantity and quality input and output factors of productivity. Practical implications – The approach succeeds in developing a productivity strategy which combines quantity and quality input and output factors and supports the transformation of a strategy analysis into a practical intervention. Originality/value – The approach is unique in its uniform applicability to every industrial sector and is helpful to entrepreneurs, managers and innovators.