Strategic success not only requires an appropriate strategy but also that the strategy is executed successfully. Even the best-made strategies are worthless without successful execution. Despite its strategic importance many organizations fail at strategy execution. Fewer than 15 percent of organizations are successful in strategy execution. Because of its high failure rate, achieving successful execution remains a continuing challenge for managers. This article presents the Strategy Execution Agenda – a management model that allows managers and executives to master one of the greatest management challenges – successfully implementing strategies. The Strategy Execution Agenda incorporates 8 key strategy implementation success factors. Collectively, these factors help organizations execute their strategy to achieve sustainable organizational success.
Presentation - Strategy Implementation Success Factors
STRATEGY EXECUTION BEST PRACTICES BASED ON RIGOROUS RESEARCH
This presentation is based on my PhD research on Strategy Execution at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University – one of the top business schools in Europe with one of the top strategy departments in the world. Research reports that between 60 to 90 percent of strategies fail. Most strategies fail in the execution phase. Despite its crucial importance to every organization, research on strategy execution remains limited. Strategy research has traditionally focused on strategy formation and neglected strategy execution. To fill this crucial knowledge gap, I investigated why strategies succeed or fail. My PhD research identified 20 success factors that influence the success of a strategy implementation effort in public and private organizations. The success factors are based on over a hundred in-depth interviews with executives and managers in a wide variety of organizations around the world, both in the private and public sector. The insights and practices that emerged from the interview where subsequently synthesized into the Strategy Management framework. Successful strategy execution is the result of the interplay of five mutually reinforcing practices: developing the strategy, executing the strategy, controlling the strategy, mobilizing the people who have to deliver the strategy, and aligning the organization to the strategy.