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The
real challenge is Implementation
Many of the reputed companies like Aetna, British Airways,
HP, Gillette, Motorola, Xerox and many others failed to produce
results promised, despite the fact that they had smart CEO's,
talented team, good strategy and vision and consultants helping
them along side. In the year 2000 alone, 40 CEO's of top 200
companies on Fortunes 500 lot were removed - not retired but
fired or made to resign. On the other hand, there are companies
who deliver on their commitments year in and year out - companies
like GE, Wal-Mart, Colgate, Palmolive, and South West Airlines.
When companies fail to deliver on their promises, the most
frequent cause identified is that the CEO's strategy was wrong.
But most often strategy is not the cause. The cause is that
the strategy was not implemented properly and
timely. Things that were supposed to be done were not done.
Leaders misjudged the potential of their team to implement.
Wonderful implementation is the reason why Michael Dell over
took Compaq in market value and became the biggest maker of
PC's despite the huge size of Compaq.
The biggest challenge that most CEO's face today is not the
competition or the return to shareholders but - how
to create an implementation environment across the organization.
Implementation is the single biggest obstacle to success
and causes most disappointments that are mistakenly attributed
to other causes.
I have had the opportunity to observe corporate dynamics over
time and I observed that Strategic Plans often did not work
out in practices. Reason, as I understand was, leaders placed
too much emphasis on creating Strategy Document, and then
on intellectualizing and philosophizing but not enough on
implementation. People would agree on a project or an initiative
but nothing concrete would be done to implement it.
In the past business got away with poor implementation by
pleading for patience. Today, the business environment is
very different and highly volatile. A company can win or loose
significant market share before even it realizes what has
hit it.
The difference between a company and its competitor is the
ability to execute. If your competitors are implementing better
than you, they are beating you here and now and the financial
markets won't wait to see if your elaborate strategy plays
out.
Unfortunately, none of the business schools have 'implementation'
as a core subject. Everyone talks of strategy and today a
team of hired consultants can create the best of strategies
for your organization. Similarly, leadership is another subject
that has endless amount of material and resources available
to guide anyone. Motivational tools are available in plenty
and everyday new techniques are developed. But implementation
- doesn't get taught and hence more difficult to learn. What
use is a well-crafted strategy if the organization fails to
implement it?
Leaders talk of innovation, break through thinking, learning
organizations - which no doubt are important - but unless
these are translated into concrete action steps - they are
meaningless. In most cases all these lead to failure, which
eventually drains energy from organization and destroys them.
In most of the organizations there are lot of meetings, conferences,
discussions but no action. I have observed that most review
meetings in organizations are absolutely non-interactive.
People sit quietly and listen or watch presentations - no
questions are asked - no debate takes place. Result - no useful
action. People leave such meetings with zero commitment. This
is bound to fail the organization. One needs robust dialogue
among the team members, accountability for results - clearly
agreed and rewarding the best performance.
At the same time learning "how to implement" is
not a rocket science. It is very simple and straightforward.
The only requirement is that the leader has to be deeply and
passionately engaged in the organization and is bold enough
to accept the realities and address them head on. Implementation
is actually a very systematic process based on HOWS and WHATS
- follow-ups and synchronizing efforts accountability.
Organizations that have implementation-oriented culture change
faster than others because they are closer to the situation.
The leader must be in charge of getting things done by running
the three core processes - picking other leaders, setting
the strategic direction and conducting operations. These actions
are the substance of implementation and leaders cannot delegate
them regardless of the size of the organization. A coach in
a team cannot delegate actual coaching to anyone. Because
he is constantly with the players on the field and in the
locker room - he tunes them and their capabilities and the
players get the benefit of this experience, feedback comments
- first hand. Business leader is no different. Many a times,
leaders see implementation as something that can be handled
by the first line while leaders focus only on developing plans
and strategies. This is completely wrong. Leaders have to
be personally and deeply engaged in implementation. Leaders
might be familiar with latest management practices and techniques
but unless they understand and practice implementation
they would not be able to lead the organization to success.
Implementation has to be part of the company's
strategy and goals. It has to be the most important job of
all leaders so that they can deliver on its commitments or
adapt to change faster than its competitors. Implementation
has to be embedded as a culture in the organization and this
would guarantee success. It has to begin with top leadership
and percolate down and drive the behavior of all leaders at
all levels.
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