Why Is Strategy Execution So Hard?

Poor strategy execution is the #1 reason why businesses fail in today’s marketplace.

Poor execution of the strategy is often the culprit -not the strategy itself.

Four reasons why your strategy execution may not be working:

1. Your strategy fails to recognize the limitations of your organization.
   Strategy execution makes huge demands on an organization’s capabilities and resources. While your organization can certainly transform its capabilities over time, there is a limit to how far and how fast. Recognizing what your organization can realistically deliver before crafting a new direction is essential to your business success.
2. Your employees don’t know how the strategy applies to their daily activities.
   Most companies don’t communicate strategy broadly or effectively to their employees. If your employees don’t know how the strategy affects their everyday activities, they aren’t likely to execute your company's strategy effectively.
3. Your organization’s business systems or processes can’t support the strategy. It’s difficult to implement a new strategy without changing the way the organization works. Does the workflow across your various departments and divisions support your intent? Can your systems and tools meet the demands of the new strategic vision? Pursuing a new strategy with old capabilities is a recipe for disaster.
4. Your performance measures and rewards are not aligned with the strategy.
   Are you creating measurement tools that make employees feel good about their performance but don’t really measure the company’s key success factors. Measurement and rewards must tie back to the specific employee behaviors and results sought – behaviors that support your company’s strategic vision.