At The Forefront

According to Harvard Business School Professor Robert Kaplan's book The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully. Other sources say that 60%–90% of companies fail to execute their strategy.  I have read a lot of the literature on this topic.  I have also worked with over 50 enterprises in a transformational context and an additional 400 in a “spot improvement” context.  The most frequently cited causes of failure are manifold and it is hard to disagree with any of them.  When viewed in aggregate, the list can be daunting, and this complicates diagnosis when performance is not meeting desired standards.  However, this is a situation where a few key actions can prevent or significantly mitigate the causes of failure.

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In my experience, those organizations that achieved a high degree of success in the execution of their strategy had four factors working for them that others did not:

• An unbroken link between strategy, tactics, process, and behavior.

• A transparent measurement of performance at all four levels defined above.

• Defined and interlocking accountability, especially regarding action to be taken when performance fails to meet standards.

• A strong bias toward action – including problem-solving and routine tightening of standards to expose next-level problems.

 

Most organizations possess these attributes, to an extent.  However, it is more about how these factors interconnect and work together that makes the difference.  Explore the in detail in this month's newsletter.