Implement or Die: Getting Your Strategy to Work for You

By Mike Shorten

Strategy is core to an organization's success, yet 67% of strategies fail to be implemented. Statistics show that 50% of new businesses fail in their first five years. Could failure to implement strategy successfully be a key cause of business failure? The good news is that most organizations that implement their strategy successfully realize a positive financial outcome.

 

So how do you improve your business through implementing your strategy successfully? The solutions that this book provides are tailored around a systematic, action-oriented approach to improving the performance of your business through successful strategy implementation. It takes you through a process of defining strategies and tactics by reviewing your current business practices against best practice. It will help you to define what you need to do to change for the better and will guide you through the pitfalls that will come your way. This is done in a simple, easy-to-implement way by providing you with the key concepts behind each of the management models together with the actions needed for implementation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Shorten
• Release date: Nov 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9780620952972

Book preview

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Contents

Why I Wrote This Book

The Tool and How to Use it

SECTION 1: WHO WE WANT THE ORGANIZATION TO BE

Strategy

1.1 Your Purpose (Why)

1.2 Your Vision (What)

1.3 Your Mission (How)

1.4 Your Goals

1.5 Your Objectives

1.6 Your Strategies

1.7 Your Tactics

Culture and Values

2.1 Your Culture

2.2 Your Values

2.3 Renewing Your Organization

Leading the Team

3.1 Leadership and Delegation

3.2 Teamwork

3.3 Owner Influence

3.4 Owner Support Network

Review Your Strategy, Culture and Leadership

SECTION 2: WHAT YOU WANT THE ORGANIZATION TO DO

Market Presence

5.1 Segmentation by Knowing Your Customer

5.2 Differentiate Yourself

5.3 Your Marketing Plan

5.4 Innovating your Products and Services

Increasing Sales

6.1 Partnering With Your Customer

6.2 Your Sales Network

Operations

7.1 Your Value Chain

7.2 Resources to Deliver

7.3 Your Delivery Partners

7.4 Your Structure

Efficiency and Effectiveness

8.1 Your Employees as Partners

8.2 Your Internal Efficiencies

8.3 Measuring Your Performance

Corporate Governance

9.1 Corporate Governance Practices

9.2 Financial Controls

9.3 Risk Management

Review your Target Operating Model

SECTION 3:IMPLEMENTATION

Implementing Your Strategy

11.1 Implementation Tips

11.2 Project Management

A Final Word

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Why I Wrote This Book

The rate of new business failure is high:¹

There is, coincidently, a high failure rate among organizations that fail to implement their strategies:²

Conversely, organizations that successfully implement their strategies realize financial gains:³

These statistics show that organizations need to define appropriate strategies at a level that enables their implementation to be successful. That’s easy to say but difficult to do! I felt I needed to do something to help organizations with their strategy implementation success rates.

I have spent a fair portion of my career with one of the world’s large international consulting firms, helping organizations define their strategies and develop plans to improve their business performance. Acutely aware of the cost and effectiveness of advisory services, I felt I needed to consolidate my knowledge and experience into a tool aimed at strategy definition and implementation. I wanted a cost-effective way of getting this knowledge to organizations that could not afford consultants.

The most cost-effective method, I felt, was through a book. There are many books out there espousing many different managerial theories or pushing academic agendas, but I wanted to write one that focused on covering key concepts that organizations needed to get right, without the need to pass the thud test (that being the sound made by a large book hitting the table). I also wanted to leave the responsibility for design and implementation where it should be – with the organization’s leadership.

To do all of this, I needed to simplify. I firmly believe that complexity and failure work hand in hand, and thus wanted to see a simplified approach to providing advice that would hopefully lead to a simplification of solutions by the user.

This book defines a business improvement and strategy implementation tool designed to help organizations realize business success through identifying and implementing strategies and tactics to achieve their vision. The tool provides a simplified, holistic, and action-oriented approach to achieving success, no matter the kind of organization.

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1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016, Survival Rates of Establishments, by year started and number of years since starting, 1994–2015, in percent, .

2 Ron Carucci, 2017, Executives Fail to Execute Strategy Because They’re Too Internally Focused, Harvard Business Review, .

3 Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin, and Elizabeth Powers, 2008, The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution, Harvard Business Review, .

The Tool and How to Use it

This book is presented as a business tool that has been designed to help organizations to be successful by providing a comprehensive but simplified approach to improving their performance while striving to achieve a future vision.

The tool starts with a vision for the organization’s future and a strategy that defines how the vision will be attained. Strategies are, by nature, high-level and often lack the detail required to automatically ensure successful implementation. More detail is required as to what needs to change at the operating model level. (The operating model refers to how products and services are delivered to meet customer needs). To help define the required changes, a future operating model needs to be determined – also known as a Target Operating Model (or TOM). The TOM covers all aspects of the organization, including markets, operations, and people. A detailed implementation plan then helps the organization bridge the gap from how they currently operate to how they want to operate to ensure delivery of their vision and strategy. This tool helps you define this necessary detail by reviewing your current practices against best practices. It also alerts you to the numerous pitfalls in strategy implementation that you need to avoid to attain your vision.

An Overview

Despite all its mystique and the confusion that surrounds it, a strategy is actually quite simple. It highlights who an organization is (or wants to be), what it does (or wants to do), and provides an essential growth path for the organization to follow to achieve its envisaged future. The tool builds on these three essential elements as shown in the diagram below:

An Overview of the Tool

The first step in the process is defining who the organization wants to be ①. This involves defining the strategy (purpose, vision, mission, goals, and objectives), the culture and values (since people are critical in achieving the vision), and the leadership style necessary to achieve the vision.

The second step is deciding what the organization wants to do ② in order to become what it wants to be. This is achieved by defining market presence, increasing sales, operations and delivery, efficiency and effectiveness, and governance and control.

The final step is ensuring that the strategies are implemented ③.

Each element in the triangle in the above model is represented by a module in the tool. Each module is supported by a number of key management strategies. The management strategies go into extensive detail on each topic, providing additional information such as actions, tools, examples, and best practices to help you with your detailed definition.

Using the Tool

Running a business is complex. The tool has many different facets catering to many of these complexities. So, where do you start?

The order of the tool is very specific, starting with the modules that will help you define who the organization wants to be. The next modules will provide guidance to defining what the organization wants to do. The final section is about ensuring success in implementing your strategies, as identified in the previous modules.

Each managerial strategy starts with a brief description of the topic aimed at creating awareness. Next, actions are provided to help draw up plans and begin changing your organization through implementation. You might want to undertake further research on the topic before committing to any actions, which is perfectly acceptable – it is your intervention in your organization. Do what you feel is best.

You can read through the entire tool in less than a day. But to reflect fully on each action and its implications for your organization, and to formulate and implement solutions, will take much longer. You can use the tool continuously, independent of your strategy definition process. Organizations are dynamic. You will get something new each time you go through the tool.

As a final note, do not expect to find all the answers to your organization’s issues to be neatly laid out in the tool. Using the tool is only the beginning of your journey. I hope to widen your knowledge and stimulate your thinking. You are still going to have to work out how to use the different concepts in your organization and then make them work through implementation.

The biggest challenge facing you in using this tool is overcoming all your other priorities and challenges and sticking to implementing your strategy. There are going to be all sorts of immediate demands on your time, taking you away from implementing solutions for your long-term growth. You are going to find the going hard, and you will, at times, ask yourself why you are doing this.

Keep the end picture of your organization in mind. This won’t happen overnight. Your reward will be a successful organization that will keep you excited while it is developing into your envisaged future organization.

You might want to find a mentor with who you can discuss your progress in implementing your strategy. That person will be your counselor, consultant, and cheerleader.

SECTION 1

WHO WE WANT THE ORGANIZATION TO BE

This is the first section outlined in the approach and covers who we want the organization to be. It is highlighted in the diagram below:

Section 1 of the Tool

The details of this section are shown in the model below:

Module Content

The Strategy Module

The tool starts with defining where you are going. This includes the definition of purpose, vision, and mission statements answering the why, what, and how questions.

Once an overall strategy is defined, measurements of success are determined through goals and objectives. Getting there is defined through strategies and tactics to help you achieve your strategy.

The Culture and Values Module

Your culture will ultimately determine the type of organization you will have and how successful you will be. A key component of your culture is your values. You cannot deliver your vision without the commitment of the people who will be involved in making the vision happen – your employees. Great vision, mission, and purpose statements resonate with employees when they address what already exists in their hearts and minds. Implementing these requires active management of any change.

The Leading the Team Module

Do you have the right leadership team to attain your vision? This module covers leadership and delegation, teamwork, your influence on the organization, and your support network.

The Reviewing Your Strategy Module

This module allows you to reflect on your strategy.

Your definitions resulting from these modules become the driving framework for the definition of your Target Operating Model as detailed in the next section.

1

Strategy

Your strategy is your organization’s high-level work plan defining where you are going and how you are going to get there.

Your strategy:

Helps clarify your thinking by providing a systematic approach that will help you define what you want for your organization and how you are going to achieve it.

Will help redirect your focus should the organization lose its way.

Provides an opportunity to explore ideas for the future and to share and discuss opportunities and ideas clearly and consistently.

Provides a common purpose that tells employees what you are trying to do.

Helps generate hope and enthusiasm for the future, both for yourself and for your employees.

Helps provide focus and direction, particularly when it comes to decision-making and especially when deciding where to allocate scarce resources.

Provides an overview of the organization, particularly for investors, financiers, and directors, but also for suppliers and even for customers.

The result of a clearly defined and implemented strategy is a sustainable organization.

A typical strategy definition process is depicted in the diagram below:

This module assumes that you have already defined your strategic options and focuses on your strategic definition.

Success and reputation are driven by a few key attributes that need to be considered during your strategy definition process, including:

Emotional appeal: the organization is trusted, admired, and respected.

Products and services: products and services are innovative, of high quality, and good value.

Vision and leadership: the organization has a clear vision of its future. It has excellent leadership that takes advantage of opportunities.

Workplace: the organization is well managed and is an attractive place at which to work.

Performance: the organization has a good profit history, shows continued growth, and outperforms its competitors.

Social responsibility: the organization treats its people well, is environmentally responsible and supports worthwhile causes.

Defining a strategy is not difficult. It is more than likely that you already know and understand all the elements that will make up your strategy. However, the process is not always plain sailing and can lead to procrastination, frustration, and conflict owing to differences in opinion.

A strategy statement must be clear and in writing. A verbal strategy tends to change depending on the audience and the thoughts going through the mind of the CEO or owner at the time! This leads to confusion and, ultimately, to employee dissatisfaction and poor performance. A formal written document provides clarity and consistency to others and helps them to understand what you are trying to achieve. (See GUIDELINES FOR A GOOD STRATEGY)

How do you make your strategy live? You are going to aim at referring to your strategy daily to ensure its successful implementation through summarizing your strategy on one page. One page keeps it simple and focused, makes it an effective communication tool, and makes it easier to refer to consistently. The contents of a one-page strategy are up to you. It could just be your purpose, vision, and mission. You can also include your goals, objectives, and core strategies. What about your values? Make your one-page strategy relevant to your needs.

Supporting this one-page strategy statement will be the details of your strategy and implementation plan necessary for its successful implementation.

GUIDELINES FOR A GOOD STRATEGY

Simplicity: Aim at making a potentially complex subject simple.

Focus: Clarify what is essential to run and grow the organization successfully.

Readily understandable: Clearly address all major issues applicable to all stakeholders.

Versatility: It must be a tool that can be used to communicate with multiple audiences.

Consistency: Make sure its message is consistent throughout.

Flexibility: It must be easy to change, update and expand.

1.1 Your Purpose (Why)

The first step in defining your strategy focusses on where you are going and includes your purpose, vison and mission.

Awareness

Simon Sinek, in his book Start With Why⁴, contends that organizations that stand out from their competitors are those that know why they exist. He discovered what he calls The Golden Circle, which comprises:

Sinek’s Golden Circle

What

Every organization knows WHAT they do. Everyone can describe their products and services.

How

Not all organizations know HOW they do what they do. HOWs – also known as differentiating value propositions or unique selling propositions – explain how something is different or better.

Why

Very few organizations can articulate WHY they do what they do. It is not about having a successful organization – that is the result. The WHY is your purpose – what you believe in. WHY does your organization exist?

Sinek quotes Apple as an organization that knows its WHY. Apple’s WHY is to challenge the status