The Step-by-Step Blueprint to Strategy Execution
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What is a Business Strategy?
Strategies are broad, long-term plans that span the entirety of an organisation. Their implementation can be contained within well-defined projects, management directives, goals, policies, hiring decisions, and organisational modifications.What is Strategy Execution?
Strategy execution is putting a company’s strategic plan into action. To execute a strategy successfully, businesses need to set clear goals and objectives, allocate resources, and assign responsibility for each task. Furthermore, they need to establish performance metrics and create a system for tracking progress. Achieving all of this requires careful planning and coordination and a commitment from all organisation members.The Importance of Executing a Business strategy
A well-executed strategy enables a company to compete effectively and achieve sustainable success; it also allows the firm to address market opportunities and risks more readily. Strategy execution allows a company to use its assets and talents more effectively, which is beneficial in forming a good reputation among customers, staff, and other stakeholders. Finally, it can help the company create shareholder value by delivering superior financial returns.The Steps to Strategy Execution
When executing a business strategy, the steps to follow are:Visualisation of Strategy
Understanding what a strategy is is one of the most significant and recurring issues when implementing one. You need to develop a transparent model that helps the company understand current processes and distinguish them from operational improvements. A practical method to increase this understanding is to draw a sketch that depicts the strategy and its critical elements and how each step relates to the rest of the goal. Consider: Do we have a clear idea of the mission, key strategic priorities, and desired outcomes for the company? Is it obvious why these are so crucial? Are your business structures, processes, and systems well integrated with the new strategy and objectives?Definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Trackable KPIs should be used to measure the crucial elements of the visualised plan. Using a dashboard, your company can see how far it’s progressed. KPIs are one of the most well-known management tools. And for a prime reason; they work. KPIs keep you honest and focused on your goals. When selecting your KPIs, remember to keep them simple and understandable to everyone in the organisation involved in the strategy execution. You don’t want a strategy that can be grasped only by a few persons. Also, don’t make them all about the money. Sure, profit and revenue may be your ultimate goal, but KPIs should drive those things – measuring outcomes alone adds no value. Lastly, make it simple to measure them quickly. You don’t want KPIs that can’t be measured until years after the strategy has started. That isn’t going to work in keeping your strategy implementation efforts focused early on.Alignment of Projects
Once projects are started, they must be aligned with their strategies and goals. A comparison must be made of each proposed or ongoing project to the organisational goals to discover whether alignment exists. Only those projects that are aligned to the strategy should be funded and supported.Project Management
Projects are how a company puts its strategies into action. Often, tasks get little attention due to a lack of effective management. Hence, there is a need for organisations to develop a mastery of project management. A central project office or officer responsible for monitoring both progress and performance should oversee the entire set of projects in an organisation.Progress Report
This is an essential but often overlooked step in strategy execution. You need to keep everyone up-to-date on the progress being made and the results of actions taken. This can be done in several ways, such as regular reports, meetings, or an intranet site where people can go to check the latest information. But whatever method you use, make sure it’s something that works for your organisation and that people will use. There’s no point in creating a great reporting system if no one looks at it. In creating the reports, you should ensure that they are simple enough to give an overview of how the strategy is progressing; they should also include the identity of persons or teams responsible for achieving specific goals and those achieving those goals. The report should also detail the next steps. It should not only give a general overview of how the plan is coming along presently; it should also explain how it’s progressing over time. Try to include a comparison period or graphics/charts that demonstrate progress over time so that momentum may be kept.Performance Management
Your workforce is the backbone that drives your organisation toward success. No matter how big or small, every company must have a well-functioning team to reach its goals. Therefore nurture and develop this group and keep them engaged with the broad picture objectives of your firm. Make the most of every opportunity to educate and assess your staff, so they understand how their efforts help to contribute to the company’s overall success. An employee who understands their role within the company and the impact of their work is more committed to success. This commitment is even more when they realise how effective strategy execution is to their reward and remuneration.Conclusion
At the heart of any organisation’s success is its ability to execute strategy. This process begins with the development of a clear and concise plan that takes into account the company’s strengths and weaknesses. Once the plan is in place, it is essential to ensure that all employees know their roles and responsibilities in executing the strategy. Uppwise is a robust platform that helps organisations keep track of progress and identify areas where improvements need to be made. In addition, Uppwise provides employees with the ability to give feedback and suggest new ideas, ensuring that the execution process is constantly fine-tuned. If you’re looking to take your company’s execution game to the next level, Uppwise is the answer.
Founder of Uppwise, Gioacchino has solid hands-on, experience and vision in the PPM Market, gained as a startupper and founder of a number of software & cloud-services companies. During the last two years he has lead the company transformation, shifting from the offering of a traditional PPM product to a new suite of SPM, APM and CWM products.