Do you want to improve the odds of strategy execution? I’m sure that, invariably the answer for the question would be an enthusiastic nod.
Here’s a simple statement to remember: Have a well-understood strategy and communicate it widely.
This might sound obvious, but we have seen that not many organizations have a real strategy. Strategy execution is largely based on how realistic and how clear is your strategy. Before you invest considerable time, energy, and often substantial financial resources required for a Balanced Scorecard, or any other strategy execution system, take a step back and ensure you do in fact have a strategy and it is clearly communicated across your organization.
So what is a ‘real’ strategy and what is efficient strategy execution?
In the simplest of terms, it means that you have spent considerable amount of time and energy in understanding who your customers are, you have debated and agreed upon what products or service you will be offering them, how will you be adding value and you are clear about why they should come to you and not others, etc. As most strategy gurus would tell, you also need to be sure of what not to do as it gives you a clear direction of what to do, and therefore you can make a clear choice.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that will help you build a strategy for your exact target market. Once you have the right strategy, it’s all about efficiently executing it. Strategy execution is not just about chasing lofty goals. It about getting the strategy in the DNA of everyone in the organization.
A four step process would help:
Align -> Translate -> Communicate -> Act
Alignment is the key to execution. Ensure that everyone is singing the same song. Secondly, employees can only execute the strategy through informed decision-making and this is exactly where translation and communication of your strategy comes in. Finally, the most important part - put your strategy into action. Have an actionable plan, set key performance indicators and track the performance.
Now, if you are planning to use a performance management software, ensure that you opt for one that places strategy at the heart of enterprise performance management, as every decision and every aspect of your organization stems out of your strategy.
By Yaagneshwaran Ganesh, from: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140819070229-44477394-what-is-strategy-execution-really?trk=object-title