Burning Dollars on Strategy
A well-defined business strategy is a compass that provides the direction a company should head. It helps navigate the competitive landscape and position itself and all those on board to succeed. Unfortunately, many companies never realise their strategy, despite the significant effort and resources they have used in creating it.
The Secret Strategy
Some companies have a secret strategy that nobody seems to know anything about. It may be in the CEO’s head, or only discussed in whispers during executive team meetings for fear that the competition may find out about it from ‘spies’ and consequently derail it. Or those that would actually be responsible for executing the strategy may never hear about it because ‘strategizing’ is deemed to be below their pay grade. This is akin to a sports team that has little communication with the coach and so consequently has no idea how to play - let alone win the game. A strategy that is floating around in someone’s head or is never shared beyond an inner circle - except at most in drips or drabs at random times - is completely useless and can, in fact, lead to poor performance, as employees disengage in frustration. No team can execute something they don’t know or understand.
“Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there” - Will Rogers
The Coffee Table Book Strategy
Other companies have communicated their strategy, but no one seems to have taken any notice of it (including the executive team). Companies can spend an enormous amount of valuable time (and money) lovingly crafting their blueprints, inserting big words and big ideas into their frameworks and then binding these into a glossy book that sits majestically on the CEO’s shelf …..gathering dust. I call this the ‘coffee table book strategy.’ A strategy that is created but never used is essentially useless. It costs you resources to develop and refine (especially if you employ the services of an overpriced consulting company) but makes you very little money in the end, all the while increasing frustration and disengagement amongst the staff who were initially excited by it in the first place.
Avoiding Uncomfortable Change
Then there are those companies that have made a genuine attempt at implementing their strategy but have unfortunately not realised or accepted that they need to go on a journey of uncomfortable transformational change to reach their aspirational goals. They want to rely on previous methods used to achieve success – which may no longer work. Moreover, the roadmap to implement the strategy is essentially not aligned with the inevitable and sometimes painful realities associated with delivery. Consider a successful sports team that has dominated in their grade level. Now they are re-graded and must continue to improve their performance. They need to re-group and create new training techniques to win games in this new grade level. But this will inevitably bring uncomfortable transformational change. For example, they might need a new coach. Some weaker players may not be ready to play at this level or may not have the necessary commitment to play at this new level. The training schedules and sessions will need to change, and all players will need to learn new techniques and skills. In the same way, a company that wants to grow by moving into the next ‘grade level’ needs to accept that there will be difficult and uncomfortable changes.
Close Partnerships are the Key to Success
Strategy delivery is most likely to succeed if leaders not only over-communicate strategies and the related roadmaps to their delivery teams but also thoroughly and continuously consult and form a close coalition with these teams to ensure that those in the business of execution are in step with the leaders who are responsible for the company’s direction. This is critical as any new information or learnings gathered during delivery can be fed back to the executive team who can then be kept abreast of any challenges the delivery team is facing and address these challenges as they arise. Because ultimately, if these challenges are not addressed, the outcomes and the strategy, won’t be realised.
Consider our sports team. To win a game, the team members work closely with the coach. They are in constant communication, accepting feedback and adapting to the play. In the same way, executives and delivery teams must build trusted relationships, ensuring that nothing is lost in translation or left to chance. If they work together they can win the next game.
We know instinctively that companies need a strategy to grow and prosper. However, unless a strategy is intentionally used to drive transformational change, and unless close partnerships between executives and the delivery teams are fostered as change is implemented, strategy and delivery cannot be aligned. This will consequently jeopardise any outcomes and so the strategy becomes a missed opportunity that has ultimately wasted resources rather than enabling the desired business outcomes.
If you need help making your Strategy come to life - contact us today!