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December 2007
Oman Economic Review
An Outstanding Truth
Infoline, the leading IT and ITES (IT Enabled Service) provider, brings Robin Speculand, the master at strategy implementation, back in town, with a highly interactive and stimulating workshop on Implementing Strategy successfully.
Nine out of ten strategies fail to be implemented successfully. This is the outstanding truth that business leaders around the world have been ignoring. For 40 years since change management first became a business topic, we have been blindly following the same recipe for failure! It is an outstanding truth because it creates a tremendous opportunity for the one in 10 companies that gets it right. It is a blue ocean strategy. A differentiator that can reap rewards as the payoff is tremendous when successful, but it requires a shift in the way leaders approach strategy and in their fundamental beliefs.
A large part of the problem is that leaders are habitually underestimating the challenge of strategy implementation. After doing the hard work of crafting the right strategy, they feel that the toughest part is over and they have done their job. Many delegate the implementation and take their eye of what needs to be done. After all, let’s be honest, being invited by your CEO to help create the company’s future is perceived to be flattering, an opportunity to prove oneself, which could lead to promotion. However, being invited by your CEO to help implement the strategy is often perceived as laborious and even a punishment. Consider though it is not strategy that creates revenue but the implementation.
It is time to change our thinking about strategy. Even the most remarkable strategy is not worth the paper it is written on, if it is not implemented successfully.
It is time to change our thinking about implementation. Successful implementation, though not rocket science, does take discipline and structure. It is about doing many right things at the same time.
It is time to change our thinking about change. Many organizations end up back to business as usual within 12 months of launching a new strategy!
In recent years, implementation has started to become a recognised field in its own right. Articles are starting to appear in leading business journals and magazines. There have been several books written on the subject and most importantly, leaders are now recognising the need to focus their energies not just on crafting strategy but on implementing it.
Every successful implementation is unique. There are, however, four common lessons to be learned.
Key Lessons:
• Leaders need to change their thinking. Implementation will probably be tougher than you expect. Underestimating the challenge, as most do, is both costly and damaging to business. The hard work done by leaders in crafting the strategy is lost and failed implementation can lead to declining sales and market share. Implementation, however, requires greater leadership focus. In a recent Harris poll, 66 per cent of CEOs interviewed from a set of US companies said, “skill at the execution level had to be improved”. Reflect in the past how much time you have allocated to crafting strategy to how much time you spent on its specific implementation, (this does not include daily operational issues).
• Many implementations involve leaders returning to their offices after creating their strategy and being left to their own devices to work out next steps. They are required to figure out how to inform the people in their division of the imminent changes; explain what needs to change and why; review the way the team is working; ensure that the current rewards and recognition systems support the new strategy; motivate their people and not only assess the current measures being used but also report back to their peers. It is a multitude of activities that creates a maze that many leaders get lost in. If they do not have a clear way of thinking, they typically delegate the responsibility to either internal or external consultants. They need to be, however, cognisant that it is their responsibility. What is missing is a framework that helps them achieve their articulated objectives.
• As you implement strategy, you move from theory to practice, from planning to action and from concept to execution. The critical question is, “What are the actions you need to take?” A simplistic question in nature but in practice the driver of successful implementation because successful implementation is all about identifying the right actions to take and then ensuring they are done and create the right results. Fortune magazine claims the best practice among the best CEOs is that they follow up. At the start of every meeting, they check the actions taken from the previous meeting and that the right outcomes were achieved.
• Implementation never goes according to plan. This is because there are too many factors that influence it. Customer expectations change, as do markets and the competition. Internally, there will always be staff turnover, operational issues and new challenges to overcome. It is therefore critical that you closely monitor the implementation and address unanticipated problems as they arise. Implementation without proper reviews is like a man falling from a 30-storey building. At each floor, someone asks him how he is doing and he replies, “So far, looking good|!”
Implementation is a business differentiator. It is the difference between success and failure and can no longer be ignored. If nine out of 10 companies fail to implement strategy, then by correcting your implementation you create outstanding results.
Infoline, the leading IT and ITES (IT Enabled Service) provider, brings Robin Speculand, the master at strategy implementation, back in town, with a highly interactive and stimulating workshop on Implementing Strategy successfully.
Robin Speculand, author of the best-seller “Bricks to Bridges – Make Your Strategy Come Alive” and Turning It On – Surefire business stories to ignite, excite and entertain” is the CEO of Bridges Business Cons., a firm which specialises in strategy implementation. His popular work has been featured on various leading media channels such as BBC Global and Financial Time. His vast experience includes working with various management teams across the globe.
Robin Speculand will be presenting a unique one-day seminar “Make Your Strategy Come Alive – What Happens After You Craft Your Strategy?” on December 16 at the Shangri-La’ Sultanate of Oman.
This exciting, motivating and interactive one-day seminar equips participants with a guiding framework as they prepare to take on their strategy implementation challenges. It targets senior executives and is packed with best practices, live case studies and interesting anecdotes from all parts of the world. The seminar now runs in 20 cities across four continents and has been a great success worldwide.
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