Balancing Strategy and Execution: Five Domains To Consider

Remember when we could simply distinguish between strategy creation as "thinking" (analysis, planning, setting goals, etc.) and strategy execution as "doin"g (follow-through, top-to-bottom, operational, goal achieving, etc.)?

Today's challenge is how to balance both strategy and execution - or how to build execution into strategy.

How do you build execution into strategy? It starts with a recognition that all parts of the organization - and people at all levels - need to be involved in the process of setting goals, since it's "all people" that are responsible for executing the strategy.

New research shows that the "many are smarter than the few" philosophy of management is catching on.

Organizations can unleash the power of collective judgment by consulting broad groups of employees in the planning process; this approach has the added benefit of creating support for change, which is required for successful execution.

As the discipline of strategy execution evolves and organizations seek to improve the link between strategy and execution, five major domains stand out as critical for any organization

1. Focus. The focus is about ensuring organizational commitment and alignment to the strategy.
2. Resources. The resources domain involves allocating financial and other resources required to fund strategy and operations, and monitoring those resources continuously to ensure goal achievement.
3. Operations. The operations domain entails analyzing the drivers of business performance and linking operational processes to the execution of strategy.
4. People. The people domain is about ensuring employee readiness and personal goal alignment, and aligning HR processes and systems to support the strategy.
5. Information. The information domain involves developing a technology platform to enable core processes and support the analytic needs of the enterprise.

(Excerpts from a column published in DM Review MagazineFebruary 2007 Issue by Barnaby S. Donlon)