After defining new corporate strategies to accomplish the organization’s mission and goals, managers face the challenge of Implementation.
Explanation:
Implementation is the process that translates strategies and plans into actions in order to achieve or attain strategic objectives and goals. Implementing a corporate strategic plan is as important, or even more important, than the strategies themselves.
Four reasons have been given as to why nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan. They are:
60% of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting75% of organizations don’t link employee incentives to strategy86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand their organization’s strategy.
A Corporate strategy addresses the why and what of the plan, but execution speaks to the when, who, where, and how.
Below are the suggested way via which a company or corporate entity may achieve or ensure the execution of its corporate goals:
Simplify the plan: The team may fail execute a plan or corporate goal if they don't know where to begin due to the ambiguity of the goals of the strategic planning session or if the action plans created are numerous. There is genius is simplicity. Simplify.Communicate: As simple as this sounds many managers in organisations fail to convey corporate goals and action plans to members of staff. Perhaps they feel it gives them more "power" to "hold most if not all of the chips". This kind of behavior is crippling.Reward the 'Owners Mentality': The most common reason a plan fails is lack of ownership. Businesses of the future create a culture and an environment that stimulates ownership of tasks, goals and responsibility(ies). If for instance the Marketer in an organization see how the overall vision is tied to her work, and the incentive is very clear if she is able to convert energy into results, it is most likely that she would take ownership for both success or failure of her tasks. This also speaks to the question of leadership.Regular Course Correction: Strategy should not only be discussed at yearly weekend retreats. After the roadmap has been defined and actions plans communicated and assigned to various members of the team/units, a weekly appraisal should ensue to cut down on time taken for corrective actions or remedial steps to be implemented where a team or an individual has gone off course.Maintain focus on the big picture: Owners and managers, ought not to be consumed by daily operating problems, thereby losing sight of long-term goals. The responsibility to keep the goal or plan in sight rests squarely on the shoulder of the the business owner and or manager.Progress Report: Where there’s no system to track progress, and the plan only measures what’s easy, not what’s important the execution will easily be stalled. Momentum is critical in the execution of a plan. A system that communicates challenges and progress made must be in place to enable the team take learn about how success is being achieved from others.Accountability: Every action plan, every key activity, every desired outcome and task must have an owner. Some one who is responsible for objective assessment of results attained and who can take initiative towards driving change. Accountability is a primary driver of execution.Empowerment: Although accountability may provide strong motivation for improving performance, employees must also have the authority, responsibility, and tools necessary to achieve assigned duties/tasks. If a task owner is not empowered to execute, they may resist even sabotage the process.
Cheers!
