STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION

 Strategy
Implementation

Strategy implementation is concerned with translating
a decision into action. This
presupposes that the decision
itself (i.e. the strategic choice) is made with some
thoughts being given to feasibility and acceptability. The allocation of
resources to new courses of action is needed to be undertaken and there may be
a need for adopting the organisation” s structure to handle new activities
as well as training personnel and devising appropriate systems. Strategic
implementation is often called the action stage of strategic management.

Strategy implementation
and execution is essentially an administrative task. This is equally true of
putting the strategy in place and getting individuals or the whole of the
managerial challenge to “make it happen” It involves the following:

Managers at all levels in
the organization are involved in the development of an action agenda for
implementation and execution. Each manager starting from the headquarters of
the organisation down to each operating department is involved in providing
answers to such questions as “what is required for us
to implement part of our overall strategic plan and how can we best get it
done?”

When this is properly done, the tasks
will involve scrutinising every operating activity to see what action can be
taken in order to improve strategy practices and behaviours in the organisation
members.

The
task of implementing and executing a strategy is a process of moving deliberately to create a
variety of “fits” that provides the organisation with strategy. The task of
consciously fitting the “way we see things around here” to the requirements of
first-rate strategy execution, according to Thompson Strickland, produces a
strategy- supportive organisational culture and work climate.

However, implementation fails and is
defeated completely if the ingrained attitude, and the practices of the
managers and employees are hostile or at cross-purposes with the needs of the
strategy, and if their customary ways of doing things block strategy
implementation instead of facilitating it.

In view of the importance of proper
implementation and execution of strategy to an organisation’s success, Thompson
and Strickland suggest that a number of fits are required and they include:

1)    Strategy
and the internal organisational structure

2)   Strategy and organisational skills/technical know-how/operational capabilities

3)    Strategy
and the allocation of budgets and staff size

4)   Strategy
and the organisation’s system of reward and incentives

5)    Strategy
and internal policies, practices and procedures.

6)  Strategy
and the internal organisation’s atmosphere, which are determined by the values
and beliefs shared by managers and employees, the philosophies and decision
making styles of senior managers, and other factors that make up the
organisation’s personality and culture.

Broadly speaking, the management task
of strategy implementation is done by scrutinising the whole internal
organisation to diagnosis what strategy-supportive approaches would be needed
and the actions to take to accomplish such strategies. In this task, the
different pieces of the implementation plan need to be arranged into a pattern
of action that will produce an orderly change from the old strategy to the new
strategy. The management will need to ensure that the necessary changes
embarked upon will not create disruption and disaster.

In this regard, both the sequence of
actions and the speed of implementation are important aspects of uniting the
entire organisation behind strategy accomplishment. The challenge to the
leadership of the organisation is how to stimulate the enthusiasm, pride,
commitment and dedication of managers and employees such that an
organization-wide crusade emerges to carry out the chosen strategy and to
achieve the targeted results.

Thompson and Strickland
consistently maintain that the two things that lie at the root of what
separates the best managed organisations from the rest are:

a.   Supervisor
entrepreneurship involving a well-conceived strategy plan that positions the
organisation in the right way at the right time.

b.     Competent
implementation and execution of the chosen strategy.

They noted that a well-formulated, well implemented and executed strategy is the surest route to achieving an attractive competitive advantage and enhanced organisational performance over the long term. Practitioners emphatically state that it is a whole lot easier to develop a sound strategic plan than to implement it or “make it happen”.

  Strategy
Implementation and Organisational Structure

The job of a strategy
manager is complicated when it comes to implementation due to the number of
tasks to be performed and the variety of ways in which each of them can be
approached.

For successful
implementation of a strategy, it has to be along the organisation” s
overall condition and setting, the nature of the strategy and the amount of strategy
change envisaged. That is to say, shifting to a bold new strategy poses
different implementation problems than fine-tuning the strategy already in
place. Strategy implementation will also have to be guided along the
manager”s own skills, style and methods.

Strategy implementation
includes developing an effective organisational structure, redirecting
marketing efforts, preparing budgets, developing and utilizing information
systems and motivating individuals to act.

Implementing entails mobilising the employees and managers to
put formulated strategies into action. Strategic implementation is the most
difficult stage in strategicmanagement. It requires personal and personnel discipline,
commitment and sacrifice.

Successful strategy
implementation hinges upon the manager’s ability to motivate employees, which
is more of an art than a science. Strategies formulated but not implemented
serve no useful purposes.

Strategy
implementation activities affect both employees and managers in the
organisation. Every department, division or unit must be involved.

The challenge of implementation
is to stimulate managers and employees throughout
an organisation to work with pride towards achieving stated objectives.

For effective and adequate Strategic
implementation, some organisations development corporate culture and whatever
strategy is to be implemented must follow that culture. For example, in Japan,
there is an employment pool for an organisation. This is with the concept
that the longer an employee is kept in this regard of the corporate culture “this is the way we do it”. This may create a problem and the strategist must
make a decision on how to turn around the fortunes of an ailing organisation,
in which case he has the line of the organisation’s culture. There must be the
right leadership to implement the necessary strategy in order to achieve the
corporate objectives. Usually, an organisation’s culture is one of the major
barriers to strategy implementation.                   If
a    change is carried out at all costs, the implementation
may fail if consideration is not given to the organization’s culture and
structure.

 Matching
Organisation’s Structure Strategy

A few hard and fast rules
must be considered for a strategic implementation to be successful. This is
because every strategy is grounded in its own set of key success factors and
certain critical tasks. Also, every firm has some historical backgrounds based
on the previous organisation’s decisions. The easy way out is to design the
internal organisational structure around key success factors and critical tasks
inherent in the firms strategy. This implies that the organisation’s structure
must be matched with the formulated strategies for success. To be able to
achieve this Thompson and Strickland highlights five sequence procedures as a
useful guide for fitting structure to strategy.

They are:

(i)            
Pinpoint
the key functions and task requisite for successful strategy execution.

(ii)          
Reflect
on how the strategy’s critical functions and organisational

units relate to those that are routine and to those
that provide staff support.