SECCESSFUL STRATEGY:
It’S ABOUT EXECUTION
By Helmer N. Ekstrom
Strategy not working?
What could be wrong?
Management gurus tell us it is important to get the strategy right. And, of course, it is important. Strategy is the game plan essential to getting us to where we want to go.
But even the right strategy is useless if it cannot be executed properly. A recent visit to a drive-up teller provided a good illustration of failed execution. The silent, blank-faced teller, making no eye contact, captured my deposit in the drawer and processed it. As the drawer opened again to deliver the receipt, I heard the words, “Have a nice day,” delivered as though the first reading of a script. Is that what senior executives had in mind when they adopted “the customer friendly bank” element to their strategy? Not likely. Where did they go wrong? Is being “the customer friendly bank” a bad strategy? Probably not. The likely culprit is management’s inattention to execution and their failure to fully engage in strategy execution one of the very most important people in a customer’s banking experience. The lesson here is that good strategy gone wrong usually is about execution.
A great strategy doesn’t get very far when most everyone in the organization is doing the same old things in the same old ways.
Strategy not working?
What could be wrong?
Management gurus tell us it is important to get the strategy right. And, of course, it is important. Strategy is the game plan essential to getting us to where we want to go.
But even the right strategy is useless if it cannot be executed properly. A recent visit to a drive-up teller provided a good illustration of failed execution. The silent, blank-faced teller, making no eye contact, captured my deposit in the drawer and processed it. As the drawer opened again to deliver the receipt, I heard the words, “Have a nice day,” delivered as though the first reading of a script. Is that what senior executives had in mind when they adopted “the customer friendly bank” element to their strategy? Not likely. Where did they go wrong? Is being “the customer friendly bank” a bad strategy? Probably not. The likely culprit is management’s inattention to execution and their failure to fully engage in strategy execution one of the very most important people in a customer’s banking experience. The lesson here is that good strategy gone wrong usually is about execution.
A great strategy doesn’t get very far when most everyone in the organization is doing the same old things in the same old ways.
The task of insuring effective execution of strategy is bringing the organization into alignment with that strategy [See R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton, The Strategy-Focused Organization (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001) which informed our thinking].
Most, if not all, of the energy, forces, resources, and know-how in the organization must be aimed at advancing strategy toward achieving the vision. It is like having everyone in a boat paddle in the same direction. Misalignment of organization and strategy will get you to an unintended destination, if any at all—as paddling in all directions often results in traveling in circles.
If execution is so important, then why is it often overlooked? First, we find that its value is just unappreciated. In other cases there has been so much energy invested in trying to get the strategy “right,” that everyone is exhausted and backlogged with their “regular” work. Devoting even more effort to how to put strategy to work gets shortchanged. Here, the value of execution is under-appreciated, and it is assumed that implementing the big decisions of the strategy, such as adding certain staff, creating new departments, and re-organizing, will sufficiently set the strategy in motion toward desired results.
As well, the alignment process is very hard all by itself. Add to that resisting forces imbedded in many organizations. Absence of a sense of urgency is at the top of the list. No crisis, no big deal. Another is the persistence of sacred cows—“we’ve always done it this way and it has worked just fine.”
As we have looked at situations with sluggish and failing strategies, we have consistently seen misalignment of strategy and organization. Telltale signs include:
• Staff does not know what the strategy is.
• Staff knows what the strategy is, but sees it as “something else I have to do”.
• Staff does not see the relevance of the strategy to “my job,”
• Key strategy elements are isolated in certain functional departments.
• Insufficient capacity to properly execute.
The path to insuring good execution of strategy by aligning your organization with your strategy is an involved process best left to another article, if not a series of articles. However, some key steps to keep in mind include:
• Make it clear that this is important, this is priority.
• Translate strategy into operations.
• De-consecrate the sacred cows.
• Make sure advancing strategy is at the center of everyone’s job.
• Create measures to let you know how well strategy is working.
And ponder this: Even a mediocre strategy well executed is better than a brilliant strategy that never gets off the ground.
If execution is so important, then why is it often overlooked? First, we find that its value is just unappreciated. In other cases there has been so much energy invested in trying to get the strategy “right,” that everyone is exhausted and backlogged with their “regular” work. Devoting even more effort to how to put strategy to work gets shortchanged. Here, the value of execution is under-appreciated, and it is assumed that implementing the big decisions of the strategy, such as adding certain staff, creating new departments, and re-organizing, will sufficiently set the strategy in motion toward desired results.
As well, the alignment process is very hard all by itself. Add to that resisting forces imbedded in many organizations. Absence of a sense of urgency is at the top of the list. No crisis, no big deal. Another is the persistence of sacred cows—“we’ve always done it this way and it has worked just fine.”
As we have looked at situations with sluggish and failing strategies, we have consistently seen misalignment of strategy and organization. Telltale signs include:
• Staff does not know what the strategy is.
• Staff knows what the strategy is, but sees it as “something else I have to do”.
• Staff does not see the relevance of the strategy to “my job,”
• Key strategy elements are isolated in certain functional departments.
• Insufficient capacity to properly execute.
The path to insuring good execution of strategy by aligning your organization with your strategy is an involved process best left to another article, if not a series of articles. However, some key steps to keep in mind include:
• Make it clear that this is important, this is priority.
• Translate strategy into operations.
• De-consecrate the sacred cows.
• Make sure advancing strategy is at the center of everyone’s job.
• Create measures to let you know how well strategy is working.
And ponder this: Even a mediocre strategy well executed is better than a brilliant strategy that never gets off the ground.