Strategy execution in business is a tough nut to crack for any executive in the leadership position. As per a Harvard Business Review article, in 2016, 67% of the strategies failed due to inept execution.
Another study conducted over a period of 10 years by HBR on executive leadership concluded – 61% of executives were not ready to execute on strategic challenges they came across after being appointed to a senior leadership position.
The other fact is that 50-60% of executives fail to perform in the first 18 months of their appointment, or promotion, in a strategic leadership role.
It’s one thing to develop a business strategy sitting in a boardroom and quite another to execute the same across departments of the organization.
Top 5 Rules to Abide by When Creating A Strategy Framework
#1.Assign Stakeholders to Carry Out the Strategy Execution
Make someone responsible in each department across the organization to supervise and execute what has been discussed in the conference room. Because, it’s the individuals working in varied departments in a firm that will carry out, and oversee the “execution” part.
The key is to assign an owner to each of the strategy statements made in the board room. These “owners” must report directly to the CEOs to provide explanations time-to-time on the progress made.
#2.Split Your Strategy Meetings into Two Parts
Operational issues and strategy issues seek senior executives’ attention in every organization. But both cannot be discussed simultaneously with strategy managers high up in the hierarchy chain.
Here are the reasons for separating day-to-day operational meetings from the long-term strategic discussions:
• Most of the times, the operational (day-to-day) tasks will hijack all the time in a discussion related to the execution of a strategy statement
• Making two different meeting schedules, one for operations, and for a strategy, a discussion would work the best in the overall company’s interests.
Michael Mankins from Bain & Company recommends operations meetings to be conducted once a week, and strategy contemplation discussions once a month.
#3. Monitoring of Strategic Execution is Vital
Keeping a track of the progress in strategy execution is a prime responsibility of an executive working in a leadership role in a firm. Because people, or rather, employees respond the best to the performance scrutiny made by their respective bosses. The hierarchical structure in a corporation is a living testimony to that.
Consequences of strategy professionals in leadership positions not scrutinizing their team’s performance from time-to-time:
• Work efficiency, speed, and conformance to strategic outline, all go for a toss when there is no accountability involved.
• The work-quality deteriorates in the long run with team members not concerned about the path they take to reach the final objective.
4.Second-Guessing Decisions Taken on Strategy Execution Can Be Mutilating
Questioning strategic decisions, and reviewing them repeatedly, by the strategy professionals in the higher management could lead to disasters.
A Harvard Business Review Research supported the presented fact with their research findings that stated - 71% of executives in weak-execution firms accepted that they second-guessed their strategic decisions, whereas only 45% from strong-execution companies confirming the same.
5.Strategic Information Must Flow Horizontally Across Divisions in a Firm
When the strategic decisions are not shared effectively across different teams in a company, the execution part suffers tremendously.
Here is how:
• Units in an organization work in isolation without being aimed at reaching an ultimate goal that is in line with organizational strategy.
• Best practices cannot be created, or put to effect without inter-team interactions happening among different divisions within a company.
• A study conducted by Harvard Business Review stated that only 21% of those surveyed in weak-execution firms believed that information was passed freely across divisions in comparison to 55% from strong-execution firms conforming to the same.
Brief Conclusion
The ultimate aim of every business strategy is to convey macro-level ideas across organizational divisions to drive employee actions towards reaching a common goal. A competitive advantage in the related industry is gained in the process.
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