BUSINESS: strategy – definition vs. implementation

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Some very inspiring thoughts in this article of Wharton from March 2005 – Got a Good Strategy? Now Try to Implement It:

  • It is about the fact that it is much more difficult to implement a strategy than to define it. Soooo true :-)

  • Also some good inputs concerning the danger of trying to force and speed-up too much changes within an organization, i.e. each system can be change but there is a sort of “maximum-speed” you have to find out for the change management process. If you exceed this speed-limit, you can really break the system completely down. In other words: you have to learn to be … patient! Wow, have I really said that?

  • Finally, some great reasons why it is *essential* for the Executives to integrate themselves in the implementation process, so that there is no cut between the strategic definition and its realization. A sort of “Strategic Management by Examples”. I really like this idea.

    • Only recently have people begun to realize that effective execution is a competitive business advantage. Companies are now seeing that if they execute better, they perform better. If they integrate long-term and short-term objectives, if they consider incentives, controls and feedback, they execute better. And if one company has that and the other doesn’t, the competitive advantage is clear.

    […] Execution takes longer than people expect. Political and organizational problems typically surface. So you develop a strategy, but you have to go throughout the organization and through dozens of planners to make sure it is carried out. It takes longer. Once execution starts, it could be one or two years, or even require a three-to-five year time frame.

    There is still the perception that smart people plan and grunts execute. The short answer is that those who have power or influence have to embrace, believe in and foster execution. Some people think it is a lower-level responsibility – that’s the older perception of execution – but this simply isn’t true.

    When companies separate the planning and doing – that’s wrong. Executive strategy requires ownership at all levels, from corporate level managers on down. Strategic success really demands a simultaneous view of planning and doing. The greater the overlap of doers and planners, the greater probability of success.

    Execution takes longer. Execution is a process, and not an action or a step. And execution involves more people than strategy formation.

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