Strategy Driven Sustainable Organization Growth and Profitability

Introduction
Strategy execution represents a disciplined and systematic process of directing and controlling actionable/decisive decisions and activities that make an implemented strategy work, resulting in the transformation of the organization and its institutions in order to strengthen it, and lead to sustainable growth and improved performance. Strategy execution requires the effective interplay of cooperation between the organization's strategic management system and operations management system in combining deliberate and purposeful actions demanded by the intended and planned strategy, and emergent strategy - as-needed reactions to unanticipated developments and fresh competitive pressures to realize the actual strategy.
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Factors Influencing Strategy Execution Success/Failure
Strategies may fail at execution for a myriad of reasons including the following six (6) factors:

1. Bad Strategic Decisions
2. Bad Strategy
3. Poor Implementation
4. Poor Planning
5. Poor/Weak Leadership
6. Organization Structure
7. Organization Culture

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 in successful execution. ​

Poor Leadership Style
Poor leadership is manifested in a variety of ways, including:

1. Failure of leadership to clearly communicate the reasons for the new strategy and garner the appropriate support to create consensus
2. Failure to generate enthusiasm and motivation in order to overcome any pockets of doubt and resistance to change resulting from successful strategy execution  
3. Failure of leadership to orchestrate the processes and major initiatives
4. Failure to coordinate management and staff in properly performing their tasks to accomplish work.
5. Failure to clearly articulate and communicate the vision and mission as well as the organization's values.

Bad Strategy
A strategy may be defined variously as an approach to overcoming an obstacle; or a response to a challenge. A bad strategy is a strategy that does not define an approach/means to respond to a challenge (opportunity/threat) or solve a known problem. It reflects an organization's failure to face the problem. The strategy does not align with well diagnosed strategic issue and basic problem. A good strategy is a mixture of policy and action designed to surmount a challenge/problem.

Poor Implementation
This results in failure of strategic initiatives that define major efforts required to close identified strategic gaps so the organization can make progress towards its strategic goals. Poor implementation may result in weak strategic assets that do not close the strategic gap, and since execution takes place within the context of the implemented strategy, successful execution is unlikely.

Bad Strategic Decisions
Bad decisions result in the wrong outcomes. Bad strategic decisions are strategic decisions whose outcomes result in business failure/decline. Bad decisions may result from incomplete or short-circuited decision processes.

Strategic decisions are among the main means through which management choices are actually realized. They are difficult or expensive to reverse because they substantially alter (and irrevocably so in the short run) the relationships between the decision makers' organization and customers, competitors, etc. The decision's outcomes are usually contingent on effects - the behavior of other actors affected by the decisions and outcomes. These recursive relationships between decisions, decision outcomes, and effects on other actors' behavior make strategic decisions messier and more complex than operations decisions.

Poor Planning
This results in inefficient utilization of resources such as time and labor as well as lack of capacity to managing change. Poor planning may lead to strategy execution failure resulting from: bad or unrealistic schedules for project team members resulting in waste of time and poor time management; lack of clear definition of strategy and project objectives; lack of budgetary controls leading to misuse of funds, etc. 

Strategy Execution System(s)
The actual strategy of an organization is realized through combined execution of the intended strategy - what managers have set out in advance and intend to do - as part of some important strategic plan, and as-needed reactions to unanticipated developments and fresh competitive pressures to realize the actual strategy New circumstances always emerge, whether important technological developments, rivals successful new products introductions, newly enacted government regulations and policies, etc., that create enough uncertainty about the future that makes it impossible for managers to plan every strategic action in advance and pursue their intended strategy without alteration.

Organizations need a system to support managers in influencing the effectiveness of planned actions (top-down) and as-needed adaptive reactions to unforeseen conditions ("unplanned" bottom-up strategy responses) in order to improve the likelihood of successful execution:
  

Introduction
Strategy implementation is one of three co-incident processes involves in the strategy management. Strategy implementation provides the connecting loop between formulation and execution and control. Strategy implementation is key to any organization's survival and growth; and requires the collaboration of everyone inside the organization, and on many occasions parties outside the organization. The focus of strategy implementation may be organizational change, enhanced collaboration, or enhanced supportive culture. Strategy implementation is the responsibility of top, middle and lower/line managers focused on building capacity through projects and programs to strengthen the organization, and enable it to better deliver value to customers and meeting stakeholders expectations.

In a rapidly changing world any competitive advantage a firm creates is temporary and not sustainable; this requires changes to the firm's strategic plans and changes to the corresponding implementation plans.   

Factors Influencing Strategy Implementation Success/Failure 
Strategy implementation involves closing the gap between organization's current capacity development and the capacity development that the strategy calls for. And because of the rapid and on-going changes in the business position and technology the implementation is never fully completed. 

Strategy implementation fails for a myriad of reasons including the six (6) factors discussed below. 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 their strategy implementation decisions.

Leadership Style
This is a capability the management of the organization must possess at decent levels to enable the organization's leaders and management to effectively organize, coordinate and communicate the organization's direction and vision to the workforce and keep them motivated and committed to achieve the mission and strategic objectives and goals.
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Failure to properly perform the leadership functions can lead to the following:

1. Lack of emphasis on the interfaces within the organization
2. Failing to get employees buy-in in the new strategy
3. Failing to direct employee capabilities toward the new strategy
4. Failing to keep employees motivated and committed to the strategy implementation
5. Lack of controls in terms of progress reviews and appropriate corrective actions.

Information Availability and Accuracy
This is the organization capacity to provide information system of processes and information flows that link the organization together and make accurate information available in a timely manner to support effective decision-making, communication and learning. Inadequate information systems capacity leading to poor Information Flows and availability of accurate information to support fast and accurate progress tracking, timely intervention, and corrective action at the right time and place.may result in obstacles to successful implementation because of the degradation in certain management functions such as:

1. Poor Coordination
2. Poor Strategic Decision-making such as late and/or timely decisions.
3. Bad Strategic Decisions

Uncertainty - Effects of Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a state of having limited knowledge of current conditions or future outcomes. Uncertainty deals with possible outcomes that are unknown; and is a major component of risk (the likelihood or scale of negative consequences). Uncertainty creates obstacles and challenges to decision-making due to limited knowledge of current conditions and gaps in future outcomes; and is manifested in management behavior such as:

1. Managers delaying decisions until data becomes more accessible and reliable; of course delaying some decisions brings its own set of risks of failure.
2. Managers lacking the skills and judgment to identify and analyze the factors that can affect outcomes which would enable them to identify likely risks (e.g., strategic, financial, operational, legal, etc.) and potential impacts.
3. Managers having no idea in the short-term how much value their investment decisions and projects have created in some future situation. Typically, the value delivered by enhanced and/or strengthened assets is causally and temporally separated from the successful completion of the strategic initiatives that produced these assets through cause-effect relationships that may involve two (2) or more stages making it difficult for managers to fully comprehend the contribution of these assets to the strategy execution success or failure. 

Risk is a certain type of uncertainty that involves the real possibility of loss.

​Organization Structure

The structure and operating principles as well as governance of the organization becomes more complex and critical to manage. Structure Alignment problems - the overall strategy not properly aligned (i.e., working) with the current structure; the way people and tasks/work are organized, and roles and responsibilities are assigned to people not aligned with strategy would lead to implementation problems. Weak structure can create obstacles to successful implementation manifested in the following ways::

1. Poor or inadequate information sharing
2. Unclear accountability of positions and roles
3. Working against the organizational power structure
4. Unclear roles and responsibilities
5. Motivations of employees not aligned with organizational purpose,

The structure enables strategic alignment which enables effective cascading of objectives, goals, and decision rights to the appropriate people (actors) in the organization with the capability and capacity to perform the actions at the right time and place to accomplish the requisite goals and objectives.

Organization structure provides an explanation of the decision-making process and clarifies the roles and responsibilities, allocation of human resources (the way people and tasks/work are organized and roles and responsibilities are assigned to people), and the enabled level of flexibility to respond to unexpected circumstances. The organization structure design and the degree to which it effectively enables managing complexity, coordination and control of organizational behavior is critical to effective decision-making as the decision rights cascade during strategy implementation and execution grows. Within the structure, rules, policies, and procedures are uniformly and impersonally applied to exert control over organizational members’ behaviors. .

Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization, and the meanings they attach to their actions. Culture includes the organizational values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. Culture manifests itself in the particular way things are done in an organization including how decisions are made. It affects who gets hired, how they get trained (formally or informally), what behaviors get rewarded, who gets promoted, and virtually all organizational procedures and administrative protocols. 

Organization culture defines the particular way the organization solves problems of survival through adaptation to external environment and internal integration which is supportive of the strategy. Weak culture is by definition not supportive of the new strategy and leads to organizational behavior and performance problems that present obstacles and challenges to successful implementation. unsupportive culture is reflected in organizational behavior such as::

1. Employees behaving in ways that prevent learning and development; they are unable to adapt to new mind sets (adopt new mental models).
2. Employees behaving in ways inconsistent with organizational values and principles. 
3. Organizational culture not supportive of the principles and values. Organizational culture can be supportive of the strategy by enabling: Learning and Development (Growth), Participatory Decision-Making, Power Sharing, Support and Collaboration, Tolerance for risk and conflicts.
4. organization is unable to change and adapt to new processes and practices

Execution requires supportive culture and demands ownership at all levels in the organization including management and workforce. People must commit to and own the processes and actions central to effective execution.

Human Resources
Human resources are the people that comprise the workforce including managers of an organization, and the adequacy of their competencies, knowledge and skills. Human resources represent one the category of assets employed by an organization to create and deliver products and services to customers. Poor Human Resource Management is manifested in the following ways:

1. Poor human resource policies and practices may lead to decreased productivity and poor quality.
2. HR systems inhibit the mobilization of new competencies and/or destroy existing competencies, contributing to organizational vulnerability.
3. Inadequate skills and misalignment
4. Lack of motivation and personal ownership.

Human resource management is a function concerned with ensuring that the organization obtains and retains the skilled, committed and well-motivated workforce it needs.  Strategic Human Resource Management is particularly focused on the alignment of human resources as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Strategic Human Resource Management is particularly focused on the alignment of human resources as a means of gaining competitive advantage in terms of the adequacy of their knowledge competencies, and skills. 

Technology Trends
Technological trends include not only the glamorous invention that revolutionizes the lives of the actors in the organization and its environments, but also the gradual painstaking improvements in methods, in materials, in design, in application, unemployment, and the transportation and commercial base nd their diffusion into new industries and efficiency. The rate of technological change varies considerably from one industry to another. 

Changing technology can offer major opportunities for improving goal achievement, or threaten the existence of the firm. Lack of organizational capability to adapt to technology changes is reflected in the conditions and gaps:

1. Forecast and identify relevant developments – both within and beyond the industry
2. Assess the impact of these developments on existing operations,
3. Define opportunities and threats
4. Lacking capacity development strength in creating technology strategy which deals with choices in. technology, product design and development, sources of technology, and R&D Management and Funding.

Changing technology can offer major opportunities for improving goal achievement, or threaten the existence of the firm due to unpredictable problems

Factors Supporting Effective Strategy Implementation
Effective strategy implementation and execution involves managing change in the organization's internal environment which then allows the organization to successfully adapt to the changing external environment in which it operates but cannot control. The key factors that support successful implementation and execution are the following internal environment elements:

1. People - "Do you have enough people to implement the strategies?" and "Do you have the right people in the organization to implement the strategies?" This core issues area relates to the knowledge, experience, and skills of the people (workforce) in the organization, and .is a determining factor in implementation success. Organizations invest in recruiting and training to build this capability critical to successful implementation.
2. Resources - Do you have adequate funding (financial strength) to support implementation, covering the costs and expenses that must be incurred in the execution of the strategies?" and "Do you have enough time to see the strategy throughout its implementation?" Financial strength is a factor in its won right that influences other internal environment factors. 
3. Structure - Is the structure clear-cut with lines of authority and responsibility defined and underlined in the "chain of command?" "Are the lines of communication throughout the organization clearly defined by management?" Organization structure is essentially defines how the work needed to carry out the mission is divided among the workforce/people.
4. Systems - What systems, tools, and capabilities are in place to facilitate the implementation of the strategies? What are the specific functions of these systems? Hopw will these systems aid in the implementation? The availability of the appropriate systems can significantly impact the implementation and execution performance. If the right systems are not available,or the available systems are not up to expected standards then workers and management may be hindered in the performance of the duties. If the inadequate systems are used by customers then customer satisfaction will suffer.   
5. Culture - Organization culture is influenced by the values and beliefs of the organization, and manifested in the attitudes of employees and partners, and their ability to "go the extra mile". Negative attitudes can severely and adversely impact the organization's capacity to successfully implement and execute its strategies. 
6. Management - The capability of the management team and the leadership styles employed by managers will also have a major impact on employee morale and motivation, and organizational culture.

These factors are generally in agreement with the key success factors or prerequisites for effective strategy implementation as identified by the McKinsey.  

Organization capacity development can be measured in terms of changes in the enabling environment, organizational, and individual levels.

Each of the factors influences implementation outcomes (closing the gap) in a different way; if an organization fails to pay proper attention to one of these factors, it can result in implementation failure, therefore an organization needs a system and approach to support management in successful execution. ​​
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Conclusion
The factors that influence the successful implementation of a strategy are interdependent and their influences are non-deterministic it is typically very difficult for managers to comprehend the contribution of these factors to the successful outcomes of strategy implementation making strategy implementation very hard.