Strategic Planning: An Executive's Aid for Strategic Thinking, Development and Deployment

Number 2 — Strategic Development

The best plan is only a plan, that is, good intentions, unless it degenerates into work.² A study of 275 portfolio managers reported that the ability to execute strategy was more important than the quality of the strategy itself… In the early 1980s, a survey of management consultants reported that fewer than 10% of effectively developed strategies were successfully implemented.

More recently, a 1999 Fortune cover story of prominent CEO failures concluded that the emphasis placed on strategy and vision created a mistaken belief that the right strategy was all that was needed to succeed. “In the majority of cases, we estimate 70%, the real problem isn't bad strategy but …bad execution.” “…with the rapid changes in technology, competition and regulations, the formulation and implementation of strategy must become a continual participative process.”⁶

Execution will help you as a business leader, to choose a more robust strategy. In fact, you can't craft a worthwhile strategy if you don't, at the same time, make sure your organization has or can get what's required to execute it, including the right resources and the right people. Leaders in an execution culture design strategies that are more road maps than rigid paths enshrined in fat planning books. That way they can respond quickly when the unexpected happens. Their strategies are designed to be executed.⁷

A process exists whereby the strategies and goals are deployed throughout the organization to gain focus, alignment and engagement throughout the company.”¹

Strategies are paths to a goal. A strategy without a goal is a path to nowhere. From the top down, an organization needs to set a combination of goals with strategies to meet them. As one goes down through the organization, these goals become targets or sub-goals with sub-strategies or tactics to achieve them. Every goal needs to be explicit, understandable, measurable and time bound. This enables them to be integrated into the company's other planning processes to identify gaps in expectations and synergies within the company.