Companies consistently fail to deliver the performance their strategies promise, due to breakdowns in planning and execution.

Furthermore, research shows that strategy execution is a more important driver of financial performance than strategy development; yet companies are poorer at implementing than developing strategy.  Many studies have explored the reasons for this and found that people related issues and culture lie at the heart of it.

A fundamental problem facing organisations is how to align all resources around a common, shared purpose.  Common barriers to this include:

  • Failing to identify and focus on the sources of greatest value
  • Not creating a high performance culture
  • Setting objectives and rewarding behaviour which is not aligned to the strategy
  • Not addressing the ‘undiscussable’ barriers to progress, which often relate to personal agendas
  • Providing insufficient objective and timely feedback on performance
  • Failing to distinguish sufficiently clearly between differing levels of performance, or making it consequential

Best Practice

  • Barriers to change are openly and constructively addressed
  • All components of the organisational  system are aligned: strategy, structure, processes, people and culture
  • Information is regularly shared between individuals responsible for strategy execution
  • Responsibility and accountability for implementing decisions is clearly defined
  • A strong feeling of ownership is created amongst key employees for executing the strategy
  • A high performance culture is encouraged and developed
  • Recognition and reward supports what the organisation seeks to achieve

The Solution

    We provide a structure for implementing strategy throughout the organisation.  We do this by:
  • Helping to define the organisation’s purpose, vision and values
  • Assessing the current organisation using diagnostic questionnaires, interviews and focus groups
  • Determining the gap between the current and a high performance culture
  • Identifying how best to close the gap
  • Addressing conflicting priorities and helping overcome resistance to change
  • Aligning resources around achieving the desired goals 
back to top >>