User:Speculand/Strategy execution

Strategy Execution

Strategy execution refers to the implementation of the strategy. Research reveals that up to 90 per cent of strategies fail to be executed. The challenge for leaders is to not only to craft the right strategy but to successfully execute it. Only then can they deliver on their promises to shareholders.

Business leaders habitually underestimate the challenge of strategy implementation (the words implementation and execution are interchangeable in this context).

Three key events in strategy execution todate are:

1. "[Fortune magazine]" in June 1999 cover story, “Why CEOs Fail, ” explained, “Organizations fail to successfully implement strategy not because of bad strategy but because of bad execution.”

2. Ram Charan followed up this article by teaming up with Larry Bossidy to write Execution. The book introduced the field of execution to business leader and why execution is important.

3. Bricks to Bridges in 2004 published that 9 out of 10 times strategy fails in a framework for success.

Leaders can’t discuss strategy without discussing execution.

A key factor to the high number of failed implementations is that when leaders return to their offices after crafting the strategy, they are commonly left on their own to work out how to implement it. Although many tools and techniques exist for crafting strategy, for example SWOT, PEST and Professor Michael Porter's Five Forces, there are only a few on implementation. The most common is the Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan and Norton. Another is the Implementation Compass from the book Bricks to Bridges: Make Your Strategy Come Alive'.

Excellence in execution means taking the right action. The one in ten companies who successfully execute strategy take the right action giving their implementation momentum. It requires focusing on eight areas, simultanously: People, Biz Case, Communicate, Measure, Culture, Process, Reinforce and Review. .

Leaders must shift from thinking, planning and developing to action, managing resources and strong leadership.