Attaining Sustainable Organizational Growth and Profitability
Strategy Implementation Planning and Execution
Strategy implementation and execution are coincident functions strategy implementation, an aspect of strategic management. Strategy implementation is an action-oriented process for building a capable organization that can make the selected planned/formulated strategy work as intended, through execution of the initiatives in those plans to realize the actual strategy. There are two (2) aspects to strategy implementation: implementation planning, and execution. Strategy Implementation Planning Strategy implementation planning is one way by which an organization's objectives, strategies, and policies are put into action through development of initiatives (programs and projects), budgets and procedures. Strategy is implemented through the use of projects, programs and portfolios. Portfolios structure investments in line with strategic initiatives and objectives, whilst balancing, aligning and scrutinizing capacity and resources. Strategic initiatives are the means through which a company translates its goals and vision into practice. They are the specific actions or goals an organization adopts to bring its vision to life. They are the first tangible objectives of your strategy, and are crucial to the execution of the strategy and the organizations development. Programs combine business-as-usual with projects and steady state activity dictated by strategic priorities. Projects are transient endeavors that bring about change and achieve planned objectives. Together, they combine to deliver the beneficial change required to implement, enable and satisfy the strategic intent of the organization. Some examples of strategy implementation include: developing and executing a new marketing plan to help increase sales of the company's products to consumers. Strategy Execution Strategy execution is the implementation of a strategic plan in an effort to reach organizational goals. It comprises the daily structures, systems, and operational goals that set your team up for success. Strategy execution makes the implemented strategy work as intended, and turn strategy implementation plan into organizational success. Execution involves doing things to create "fits" between the way things are done and what it takes to make the strategy work as intended. (how things should be done) within the context of the strategy implementation. Successful strategy execution involves decisions about managing changes to appropriate elements of the organization's Operating Model. The operating model is concerned with how resources are organized and operated to get critical work done. Changes to elements of the organization's Operating Model may include: governance, accountability, or culture, and in some cases overhauling the whole structure, when a company's strategy changes. These decisions about change take place within an organizational context of power, culture, leadership, and ability to manage change. This makes it more difficult for managers to control execution. Challenges to Successful Execution Strategy execution can fail - not accomplishing the desired outcomes - for myriad reasons including the inability of the organization to manage its strategy very well when faced with challenging situations such as:
These challenges are not the reasons at fault, since other businesses are able to survive, grow and thrive. The real (causal) reason can be attributed to mismanagement - inability of the business organization to manage its strategy very well. Factors Influencing Execution Success/Failure Effective strategy execution management involves closing the "execution" gap - the gap between actual/current strategy performance and intended desired performance. The actual strategy realized from execution is the combination of the executed part of the intended (deliberate) strategy - what managers have set out in advance and intend to do - as part of some important strategic plan, and emergent strategy - the executed as-needed reactions to unanticipated developments and fresh competitive pressures. Strategy execution involves change in people that typically takes over a long period of time, this makes it more likely that the conditions under which the strategy formulation took place will change and unforeseen circumstances may arise to derail the execution. Managing organizational change requires a system of controls - a tool designed by managers to help them monitor and evaluate the progress of activities directed towards executing the organization's implemented strategy. Some of the factors that influence execution success/failure include:
All these factors are interdependent and their influences are non-deterministic; this typically, makes it very difficult for managers to comprehend the contribution of each of the factors to successful outcomes of strategy execution. Each of the factors influences execution success/failure in a different way; if an organization fails to pay proper attention to one of these factors, it can result in execution failure, therefore an organization needs a system and approach to support management of these factors and their influence on successful execution. Strategy Implementation Management Strategy execution management is a process of managing people, strategy and operations. Strategy execution management is a disciplined and systematic approach to managing - directing, controlling and facilitating - the day-to-day decisions and activities undertaken at all levels in the organization involving top management through middle management, and front-line managers and workers that carryout the ongoing pursuit of a strategy and complete it. Strategic managers create control systems to monitor the quality of products. Strategic control systems provide managers with the tools to regulate and govern their activities. In strategic control, managers first select strategy and organization structure, and then create control systems to evaluate and monitor the progress of activities directed towards implementing and executing strategies. Finally, they adopt corrective actions through adjustments in the strategy if variations are detected. Strategic control systems provide managers the tools to regulate and govern their activities through both proactive (feed forward) and reactive (feedback) mechanisms. Proactive control systems help in keeping an organization on track, anticipating future events and responding to opportunities and threats. Reactive control systems help detect deviations after events have occurred and then take corrective actions. Strategic control systems further help managers achieve superior efficiency, quality, innovation and responsiveness to customers. Strategic control systems can also help in encouraging employees to think about innovation. Strategic control systems make employees more responsive to customers through monitoring and evaluating employees' behavior and contact with customers. [TBD] Management needs to also understand the interactions among key execution decisions and actions, and contextual forces that create significant and persistent execution gap as measured by the Operating Model. An important task of managers is to design strategic control systems for successfully implementing and executing a strategy.
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AuthorI am a computer scientist by education and training. My interests are in modeling complex business and social systems to foster better strategic and operations management processes in delivering value to customers while meeting the expectations of stakeholders. Archives
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