The enterprises today need to become more open and responsive, strategy management is multidimensional.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way. It’s important for managers to take a holistic view or an outside-in perspective, keep their eyes on the higher horizons, focus on what matters the most, identify what generates the most value for the company and express that in strategic objectives with clarity. There are complexity factors to execute strategy and there is no “one size fits all” strategy execution formula.
Plan is nothing, and planning is everything: A very good strategy takes perhaps a few weeks to define it, but the execution is an ongoing activity or process for the entire business cycle of an organization. With increasing pace of change, some small changes in the initial conditions could have much larger and unpredictable consequences in the outcomes of the business system. Thus, the dynamic strategy planning is an iterative continuum, rather than a static process with linear steps. Once the “where are we” is analyzed; SWOT conducted, strategy is carved; planning is done in three horizons - short term, medium term, and long term.
With the faster paces of changes and continuous disruptions, digital organizations today have to enable desirable emergent property. The problem is not uncertainty, rather it is unpreparedness towards the efficient handling of uncertainty. Significant variation from the planned result could be a signal that the original plan is flawed. Thus, the change dynamic necessitates rethinking the plan, to embrace emerging properties and keep it updated.
Managers are trained to plan, not execute: Statistically strategy execution has a very high failure rate. Strategy creep can be indicative of larger planning issues such as poor due diligence in the planning phase, no alignment with vision or mission, lack of clear objectives, lack of clear goals, etc. Many managers give lip service to the strategy; fail to recognize and manage the devil in the details. There's a lack of resources to support strategy, or there is misalignment of strategy management. When you designed the strategy, you may not have understood that the execution was going to impact other areas of the business in ways you didn't anticipate.
A strategy is a general outline of loose action items that create departmental goals; goals are concrete items with a measurable factor. Once a strategy is formulated, it has to be translated into goals and do strategy implementation mapping. It’s important to integrate soft business success factors into hard business capabilities and make a commitment to drive progressive changes proactively. A good strategy should diagnose business issues with holistic viewpoint and systematic thinking, set choices and take actions via cross-functional collaboration, and continuous interaction.
Planning and execution are interdependent: With the faster paces of changes and continuous disruptions, digital organizations today have to enable desirable emergent property. Execution is more difficult due to its complexity and the culture or resistance. By practice, a strategy can be defined in the following two statements: where you should improve, how to succeed, where you choose to improve. Strategies should be simple that are understood by all, and should be communicated on a regular basis, keeping track of any slippage or deviation.
Due to changing circumstances, strategy and execution are interdependent, and they are not linear steps, but an iterative continuum. The strategy is more important to keep business navigating through the transformation journey, but the strategy needs to have an overarching business capability and culture of collaboration to manage it effectively and efficiently with agility. Be strategic but be prepared for the unknown. Conduct periodic follow ups to review / refresh checkpoints, manage internal / external changes, and mitigate risks
Realistic time-frames for actual delivery - not just published ones: The top reason why strategy implementations fail is because they were not actionable from the get-go. Compare strategy management with a trip plan, destination, path, speed, alignment of all business partners are part of the strategic planning. Translating strategy into operational readiness is a real skill and is typically a medium to long term goal with a number of dependent tasks.
In reality, today companies very often say yes to all the initiatives, with the consequent lack of focus on getting the most critical work done successfully. Senior Executives should say no to many of the initiatives, just choose a few where they will put most of the resources of the company on the most important things, make seamless alignment, set the right strategy to implement and execute the strategy step-wisely. Building a roadmap with a clear set of timelines and milestones will lead the execution journey more effortlessly.
Execution involves more people than strategy: Strategy execution is difficult, as the main challenges for an effective execution are: organizational resistance. Along with that the objectives are unclear to most of the stakeholder developing the strategic plan, let alone the people delivering it. The dynamic model of the strategy process is a way of understanding how strategic actions occur. A strategy implementation team is composed of people who can drive changes efficiently, break the resistance of people and encourage them to accept new changes.
It recognizes that strategic planning is dynamic, that is, strategy-making involves a complex pattern of actions and reactions. To build that bridge between strategy and execution requires leadership vision, belief, determination, enthusiasm, and actions. The right level of sponsorship will help get the resources needed for the execution. And lastly, follow-up, follow-up is key in any execution works. Portfolio management can help to prioritize and translate strategic initiatives in order to manage them more effectively. The super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
The enterprises today need to become more open and responsive, strategy management is multidimensional. You have a clear destination, but you can pick the varying paths, processes, practices, tools to get there. Stakeholder involvement and engagement always makes the difficult paths of strategy management easier to tread, highly competitive teams are critical to take wise actions and unlock business performance.
Plan is nothing, and planning is everything: A very good strategy takes perhaps a few weeks to define it, but the execution is an ongoing activity or process for the entire business cycle of an organization. With increasing pace of change, some small changes in the initial conditions could have much larger and unpredictable consequences in the outcomes of the business system. Thus, the dynamic strategy planning is an iterative continuum, rather than a static process with linear steps. Once the “where are we” is analyzed; SWOT conducted, strategy is carved; planning is done in three horizons - short term, medium term, and long term.
With the faster paces of changes and continuous disruptions, digital organizations today have to enable desirable emergent property. The problem is not uncertainty, rather it is unpreparedness towards the efficient handling of uncertainty. Significant variation from the planned result could be a signal that the original plan is flawed. Thus, the change dynamic necessitates rethinking the plan, to embrace emerging properties and keep it updated.
Managers are trained to plan, not execute: Statistically strategy execution has a very high failure rate. Strategy creep can be indicative of larger planning issues such as poor due diligence in the planning phase, no alignment with vision or mission, lack of clear objectives, lack of clear goals, etc. Many managers give lip service to the strategy; fail to recognize and manage the devil in the details. There's a lack of resources to support strategy, or there is misalignment of strategy management. When you designed the strategy, you may not have understood that the execution was going to impact other areas of the business in ways you didn't anticipate.
A strategy is a general outline of loose action items that create departmental goals; goals are concrete items with a measurable factor. Once a strategy is formulated, it has to be translated into goals and do strategy implementation mapping. It’s important to integrate soft business success factors into hard business capabilities and make a commitment to drive progressive changes proactively. A good strategy should diagnose business issues with holistic viewpoint and systematic thinking, set choices and take actions via cross-functional collaboration, and continuous interaction.
Due to changing circumstances, strategy and execution are interdependent, and they are not linear steps, but an iterative continuum. The strategy is more important to keep business navigating through the transformation journey, but the strategy needs to have an overarching business capability and culture of collaboration to manage it effectively and efficiently with agility. Be strategic but be prepared for the unknown. Conduct periodic follow ups to review / refresh checkpoints, manage internal / external changes, and mitigate risks
Realistic time-frames for actual delivery - not just published ones: The top reason why strategy implementations fail is because they were not actionable from the get-go. Compare strategy management with a trip plan, destination, path, speed, alignment of all business partners are part of the strategic planning. Translating strategy into operational readiness is a real skill and is typically a medium to long term goal with a number of dependent tasks.
In reality, today companies very often say yes to all the initiatives, with the consequent lack of focus on getting the most critical work done successfully. Senior Executives should say no to many of the initiatives, just choose a few where they will put most of the resources of the company on the most important things, make seamless alignment, set the right strategy to implement and execute the strategy step-wisely. Building a roadmap with a clear set of timelines and milestones will lead the execution journey more effortlessly.
Execution involves more people than strategy: Strategy execution is difficult, as the main challenges for an effective execution are: organizational resistance. Along with that the objectives are unclear to most of the stakeholder developing the strategic plan, let alone the people delivering it. The dynamic model of the strategy process is a way of understanding how strategic actions occur. A strategy implementation team is composed of people who can drive changes efficiently, break the resistance of people and encourage them to accept new changes.
It recognizes that strategic planning is dynamic, that is, strategy-making involves a complex pattern of actions and reactions. To build that bridge between strategy and execution requires leadership vision, belief, determination, enthusiasm, and actions. The right level of sponsorship will help get the resources needed for the execution. And lastly, follow-up, follow-up is key in any execution works. Portfolio management can help to prioritize and translate strategic initiatives in order to manage them more effectively. The super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
The enterprises today need to become more open and responsive, strategy management is multidimensional. You have a clear destination, but you can pick the varying paths, processes, practices, tools to get there. Stakeholder involvement and engagement always makes the difficult paths of strategy management easier to tread, highly competitive teams are critical to take wise actions and unlock business performance.
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