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Strategy Implementation: Six Supporting Factors: by Bill Birnbaum, CMC

The document discusses six key supporting factors for successful strategy implementation: 1) action planning, 2) organizational structure, 3) human resources, 4) annual business planning, 5) monitoring and control, and 6) linkage. It provides examples of how organizations can effectively manage each factor, such as developing detailed action plans, ensuring the organizational structure supports the strategy, considering human resource needs, linking strategic and business plans, monitoring progress, and creating vertical and horizontal linkages across departments. The most important factor is linkage, as all activities must be coordinated to implement strategies successfully.

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Muhammad Azam Tahir
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112 views3 pages

Strategy Implementation: Six Supporting Factors: by Bill Birnbaum, CMC

The document discusses six key supporting factors for successful strategy implementation: 1) action planning, 2) organizational structure, 3) human resources, 4) annual business planning, 5) monitoring and control, and 6) linkage. It provides examples of how organizations can effectively manage each factor, such as developing detailed action plans, ensuring the organizational structure supports the strategy, considering human resource needs, linking strategic and business plans, monitoring progress, and creating vertical and horizontal linkages across departments. The most important factor is linkage, as all activities must be coordinated to implement strategies successfully.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Azam Tahir
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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http://www.birnbaumassociates.com/strategy-implementation.

htm

Strategy Implementation:
Six Supporting Factors
By Bill Birnbaum, CMC
 

Home Page Strategic Thinking Book Bill Birnbaum Bio Consulting Services
 

Organizations successful at strategy


implementation effectively manage
six key supporting factors:

     1.  Action Planning


     2.  Organization Structure
     3.  Human Resources
     4.  The Annual Business Plan
     5.  Monitoring and Control
     6.  Linkage.

Action Planning
First, organizations successful at implementing strategy develop detailed action plans...
chronological lists of action steps (tactics) which add the necessary detail to their strategies. And
assign responsibility to a specific individual for accomplishing each of those action steps. Also,
they set a due date and estimate the resources required to accomplish each of their action steps.
Thus they translate their broad strategy statement into a number of specific work assignments.

Organizational Structure
Next, those successful at implementing strategy give thought to their organizational structure.
They ask if their intended strategy fits their current structure. And they ask a deeper question as
well... "Is the organization's current structure appropriate to the intended strategy?"

We're reminded here of a client we worked with some years ago. The company was experiencing
problems implementing its strategy calling for the development of two new products.

The reason the firm had been unable to develop those products was simple... they had never
organized to do so. Lacking the necessary commitment for new product development,
management didn't establish an R&D group. Rather, it assigned its manufacturing engineering
group the job of new product development... and hired two junior engineers for the task. Since the
primary function of the manufacturing engineering group was to keep the factory humming, those
engineers kept getting pulled off their "new product" projects and into the role of the
manufacturing support. Result – no new products.

Human Resource Factors


Organizations successful at strategy implementation consider the human resource factor in
making strategies happen. Further, they realize that the human resource issue is really a two part
story. First, consideration of human resources requires that management think about the
organization's communication needs. That they articulate the strategies so that those charged
with developing the corresponding action steps (tactics) fully understand the strategy they're to
implement.

Second, managers successful at implementation are aware of the effects each new strategy will
have on their human resource needs. They ask themselves the questions... "How much change
does this strategy call for?" And, "How quickly must we provide for that change?" And, "What are
the human resource implications of our answers to those two questions?"

In answering these questions, they'll decide whether to allow time for employees to grow through
experience, to introduce training, or to hire new employees.

The Annual Business Plan


Organizations successful at implementation are aware of their need to fund their intended
strategies. And they begin to think about that necessary financial commitment early in the
planning process. First, they "ballpark" the financial requirements when they first develop their
strategy. Later when developing their action plans, they "firm up" that commitment. As a client of
ours explains, they "dollarize" their strategy. That way, they link their strategic plan to their annual
business plan (and their budget). And they eliminate the "surprises" they might otherwise receive
at budgeting time.

Monitoring & Control


Monitoring and controlling the plan includes a periodic look to see if you're on course. It also
includes consideration of options to get a strategy once derailed back on track. Those options
(listed in order of increasing seriousness) include changing the schedule, changing the action
steps (tactics), changing the strategy or (as a last resort) changing the objective. (For more on this
point, see "Monitoring Implementation of Your Strategic Plan.")

Linkage - The Foundation for Everything Else


Many organizations successfully establish the above five supporting  factors. They develop action
plans, consider organizational structure, take a close look at their human resource needs, fund
their strategies through their annual business plan, and develop a plan to monitor and control their
strategies and tactics. And yet they still fail to successfully implement those strategies and tactics.
The reason, most often, is they lack linkage. Linkage is simply the tying together of all the
activities of the organization...to make sure that all of the organizational resources are "rowing in
the same direction."

It isn't enough to manage one, two or a few strategy supporting factors. To successfully
implement your strategies, you've go to manage them all. And make sure you link them together.
Strategies require "linkage" both vertically and horizontally. Vertical linkages establish
coordination and support between corporate, divisional and departmental plans. For example, a
divisional strategy calling for development of a new product should be driven by a corporate
objective – calling for growth, perhaps –- and on a knowledge of available resources –- capital
resources available from corporate as well as human and technological resources in the R&D
department.

Linkages which are horizontal –- across departments, across regional offices, across
manufacturing plants or divisions – require coordination and cooperation to get the organizational
units "all playing in harmony." For example, a strategy calling for introduction of a new product
requires the combined efforts of – and thus coordination and cooperation among – the R&D, the
marketing, and the manufacturing departments. For more on the subject of linkage, please
see Linkage: The Foundation for Everything Else.

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