10½ ways to achieve excellence in implementation
How to achieve excellence in implementation
Every business leader would like to create a sound strategy and will have it well implemented. Accomplishing this, however, remains an elusive goal for most organisations.
Here are 10 ½ Top Tips that you should consider in searching for excellence in implementation.
1. Assess your readiness
Is your business ready to take on the challenge of creating, planning and implementing a strategy?
You can determine your readiness by answering several questions.
Think of this is as a readiness audit.
Examples of questions you may ask?
- Does your business have the right leaders?
- Are the right people in the right jobs?
- Do any other current issues need to be addressed?
2. Identify the potential blockages
Before introducing a new initiative recognise potential individual, team and organisational barriers to success.
These blockages to getting things done may be hard (e.g. financial investment) or soft (e.g. culture).
3. Communicate, communicate and communicate
Effective communication is a key success factor in change programmes or new intiative launches. Smart organisaations engage their employees at the earliest opportunity in creating a roadmap and designing an implementation plan. Information is shared openly between individuals and business units responsible for implementation.
4. Have crystal clear accountability
Everyone in the organisation must understand how he or she fits in with the delivery of the big goals. Corporate business plans should cascade down into individual work plans.
Accountability is transparent so people feel responsible to colleagues and nothing is concealed. There are few rewards for delivery and consequences of failure to fulfil promises.
5. Design a roadmap, measure progress and keep it visible
Procter and Gamble (and Blue Peter) are masters at this. The idea is to translate corporate strategy onto a plan for action that is motivating and easily understood.
Remember the Blue Peter charity gauge? It was very straightforward but focused a nation’s energy to collect stamps and tin cans.
6. Leaders participate in the programme and ‘get their hands dirty’
Implementation is accelerated by organisations whose leaders get involved. It is noticeable how Boots the Chemist executive team is far more visible in stores under Richard Bakers leadership. During this period, performance has improved and market share has been clawed back from supermarkets.
7. Change the language of the boardroom from ‘strategy’ to ‘implementation’
Budgets and business planning typically centre on strategy.
Smart organisations, it is suggested, give equal measure on how this strategy is going to be implemented. Such thinking requires more than a project plan. An implementation plan must, for example, build in:
- Development tools
- Allocation of resources
- Performance reviews
- Monitor progress
- Corporate governance
- Leadership dynamics
- Goal setting
8. Measure the gap between strategy and initiative ‘reality’
Most organisations will plan a number of projects, initiatives or programmes at the start of the financial year.
However fewer will have a handle after 6 months of what the reality is. Perhaps some projects have been binned and others initiated by Maverick business units with their own agenda.
9. Understand the business model
A thorough understanding of your firm’s business model is necessary for formulating and implementing strategy.
What is the driving force?
It might be volume, revenue, profit, market share or innovation. Consider the return on investment, i.e. the relationship between profits and the investment required to generate them.
Finally, decide how to find the required investment.
10. Work across functions
The challenges that all firms face is to coordinate the activities of functional units to achieve common goals and keep them from operating as independent or competing ‘silos’.
A cross functional team will help facilitate smooth implementation.
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