| The best-laid strategic plans often go awry
once exposed to the light of day and the rudeness and ruthlessness of reality.
Former President Lyndon Johnson understood that. He often
told a story of a man who had applied for a job as a flagman at a railroad crossing. The
man was told he'd be handed the job if he could pass a test consisting of just a single
question.
The applicant was told to imagine that he was a flagman at
a crossing consisting of a single track when he suddenly observed the Continental Express
bearing down from the east at 95 miles per hour. Coming from the other direction was the
Century Limited at 100 miles per hour. With the trains only 500 yards apart, the man was
asked, what would he do under these circumstances? Without hesitation, the would-be
flagman responded that he would go and get his brother-in-law.
Puzzled, the railroad examiner inquired, "What good
would that do?"
The job applicant promptly replied, "He ain't never
seen a train wreck."
Clearly the would-be flagman didn't understand the
overarching strategy of his potential employer (prevent accidents) nor his potential role
in executing that strategy. Unfortunately, this is not unlike the current state of
corporate strategic execution as evidenced by the train wrecks (AIG, Lehman Brothers,
Citigroup, and the automotive industry) we see everyday in the marketplace.
How would I know? Well, my name is Scott Glatstein and I
help companies execute their strategies in the marketplace for a living. In fact, I've
been doing so as a corporate executive and a consultant for over 25 years.
I even wrote about strategy execution in my book,
"Strategy Activation: How to Turn Your Vision into Marketplace Success." In this
book I present a breakthrough, holistic planning discipline that links strategic vision to
marketplace reality.
Here's What I Learned During My 25+ Years Executing
Corporate Strategy:
1. Organizations who have mastered the intricacies of
translating strategic vision into marketplace execution are, far and away, more likely to
outperform competitors in key areas like:
- Revenue growth
- Profitability
- Customer satisfaction.
This is particularly true when the economy falters. When
money tightens consumer confidence falls and commerce slows. As a result customer needs
and expectations change. Every spending decision becomes an exercise in deploying limited
resources. Whether it's a consumer considering a night out on the town or a manufacturer
trying to preserve margin the decision to spend money is not taken lightly. And the
tolerance for imperfect execution melts away.
2. The old disjointed execution methods don't work anymore.
Historically, work has been divided into two parts:
strategy and execution. Top executives wrote the marketplace strategy, which always looked
good on paper. Everyone else was supposed to execute it. However, many necessary steps and
important questions were usually skipped over when moving from theory to implementation.
For example:
- Would employees be able to implement the marketplace
strategy given the new expectations placed on their performance?
- Can the company execute its strategy within its existing
culture, reward system, or fundamental workflow processes and systems?
If you want to succeed in today's difficult marketplace
than you need to break down the historical wall that exists between strategy and
execution.
3. Corporate strategic plans fail when there is no
disciplined approach to their execution.
Strategy has to be more than a feel-good presentation
shared with your managers, shareholders and the media. It has to be woven into the fabric
of your organization. This means you must go beyond articulating the typical strategic
plan. You must translate your marketplace strategy into specific employee roles and create
the infrastructure and processes that enable them to fulfill those prescribed roles.
4. Strategy fails when companies fail to recognize that
existing tools and methodologies will NOT enable success.
It's difficult to implement a new strategy without changing
the way your organization works. Too often, though, we redefine employees' roles with
little regard to the systems and processes that guide and enable their work. Your business
processes and systems must meet the demands of your new strategic vision. Do your
customer-facing and internal workflow processes enable the customer experience defined by
your strategic vision? Do your tools facilitate communication and information sharing
across the organization and enable the completion of the specific tasks that deliver your
marketplace vision? Pursuing a new strategy with old capabilities is a recipe for
disaster.
5. Strategy execution can improve as executives streamline
daily activities and realign them so they are in harmony with the company's overarching
go-to-market strategy.
I bet every division across your organization thinks it's
different and therefore needs its own unique tools and workflow processes. In most cases
that's just not true. While customization may be appropriate in some instances, one must
not lose sight of the broader organizational advantages of standardization. Consistent
information and task tools support a consistent approach to the marketplace and allow
employees to move seamlessly from one part of the organization to the next with less
training. In short, standardization can bring more organizational flexibility and
consistency to operations. And internal consistency drives consistent marketplace
execution.
These difficult times call for a disciplined, thoughtful
approach to execution of strategy in the marketplace. I created the Strategy Activation®
planning approach to facilitate corporate strategy execution excellence. Apply it to your
business and you will achieve higher revenue growth, profitability and customer
satisfaction. |
