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. Factors Influencing Strategy Execution Success/Failure Strategies may fail at execution for a myriad of reasons including the following six (6) factors:
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:
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:
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AuthorI am a computer scientist interested in modeling of complex business systems, and model-driven analysis and evaluation of strategic management and operations management and the interplay between them. Specifically, I am interested in the use of modeling to improve understanding of strategy, its formulation, implementation and execution, and the interplay between intended strategy, emergent strategy and leaning to inform better strategic decision-making. Archives
April 2018
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