Strategy Implementation – Blending the Creative and the Commercial for Success

Thinking about strategy and the successful execution thereof is something we do all day at i-nexus. By now, our views on the growing market trend in linking formulation and implementation should be clear. What I’d like to talk about in this article are the skills required in each phase as well as the pitfalls associated with doing only formulation or implementation well.

The process of strategy formulation is essentially an outward looking activity that switches its focus inwards at a point. Any decent strategy needs a robust environmental scan or analysis completed so as to ensure that the resulting strategy doesn’t read like a fairy tale. Although there is a common view that strategy formulation is a very creative process, I would argue that it’s primarily a commercial process. There is certainly space for creative flashes and insights, however there is no substitute for understanding the market, how customer needs are changing, what competitors are doing etc. Great ideas will make a great strategy, but they’re not sufficient. They need to be based on a proper view of the reality of the environment in which the strategy is to take effect and what the commercial value or advantage would be if successful.

Strategy implementation on the other hand is about focus and communication. The problem with many implementations start when the CEO and team feel that the power point deck communicated twice to the business is the implementation! There are simply too many distractions at work for the middle management team to be focused on the implementation of the strategy unless they’re either forced to or encouraged to. Sometimes there’s a fine line between the two. Unless implementation activities can be seen to be explicitly linked to breakthrough objectives and management can see in real time, the extent of progress being or not being made, I’m afraid that implementation will remain a fairy tale.

It is in addressing these issues amongst others, that Hoshin planning methodology has become so prevalent and popular. Some of the reasons for this would include:

Use of Hoshin’s x-matrix to transparently and visually cascade and show the links between

breakthrough objectives, medium term goals and implementation priorities and projects. This would include an individually focused view of various accountable resources and progress being made to achieve the relevant KPI’s;

Using the collaborative Hoshin catchball process, the voices of those involved in the implementation of the strategy on the ground can contribute to and be part of the decisions being made. This also ensures that the inevitable hard decisions are made by people who understand the reasons behind the decisions, significantly increasing the commitment and ability to successfully implement them. This would include decisions regarding resourcing, budget and other support implementation team to achieve the objectives that are identified;

The key concept of regular reviews held across the business by those people directly accountable for managing and implementing the strategy. Here those involved are able to focus on reviewing real time reports shaped around agreed key leading and lagging indicators aligned to the breakthrough objectives. This enables them to identify successes or problem areas and decide on any actions in real time to reinforce or rectify the situation thus ensuring they are on track to achieve the overall objectives.

As is clear from the above, the transparent and reliable provision of real time information relating to project implementation progress and the achievement of KPI’s aligned to overall breakthrough objectives would be critical. Fortunately this is where strategy execution software tools like i-nexus who were recently designated a 2014 Cool Vendor by Gartner for Business Process Management, can close the gap between strategy formulation and implementation, providing the solution backbone so that complete visibility, transparency and accountability are created around the strategy execution process. i-nexus software includes market leading Hoshin planning tools such as the x-matrix.

So focusing on the implementation even during the strategy formulation phase is of paramount importance. While this is easier said than done, there are numerous proven tools and methodologies that can assist companies as referred to above. In the absence of this, lack of focus on implementation could be akin to Snow White eating that poisoned apple. The only problem is that you may not be able to rely on the handsome prince to get your business out of the resulting coma.

I welcome your feedback and comments Grant Crow, i-nexus CEO Let's Connect on LinkedIn e-mail: grant.crow@i-nexus.com i-nexus