“You should not so much measure your actual performance but measure how much potential performance you have realised”
Imagine this: You have the ability to become the 400 meter world champion … and you end up in 9th place. How would you feel?
You could argue that 9th place in a world championship isn’t that bad − and you are surely right. But if you had the capabilities and ambition to be No. 1, you probably feel very disappointed … and you should.
Strategy Execution is all about realising the full potential of your strategy − and not limiting yourself to only 50, 60 or 70 percent.
How can you achieve this?
- Make sure you know the strong and weak points of your execution capabilities. If possible, compare them against your competitors. You can do this by looking at the different steps in the process. This can be done for your whole organisation, one or more divisions, or only a small team.In many organisations, Strategy Execution is still a black box. You throw your strategy in one end, and performance comes out the other end. But nobody really knows what did the trick. It’s impossible to say what worked and what didn’t.
- Once you have gained these insights, focus your energy on things that matter most.
- Don’t forget to keep doing what you do well. All too often, companies change things for the worse because they don’t know the key elements of their success.
- Have a long-term perspective. It takes time to build capabilities. Small organisations should count on 18 months to become best-in-class. For a large multinational, it can take up to three years to get there.
- Set intermediate goals and measure your progress. Measuring and receiving feedback is one of the cornerstones of Strategy Execution. So, it’s perfectly logical to apply these principles to the Strategy Execution process itself. Make sure you define intermediate targets and measure them. This will increase your success rate dramatically.
Interested in finding out your strengths and weaknesses? Check out the benchmark section.
