Operationalising a strategy

May 2022  |  SPECIAL REPORT: BUSINESS STRATEGY & OPERATIONS

Financier Worldwide Magazine

May 2022 Issue

Strategic planning has been part of human thinking for almost 200,000 years, as old as humanity itself. There is evidence regarding the role of planning over reactionary thinking in shaping the ancient human experience. Yogi Berra, the legendary catcher and manage for New York Yankees, famously said: “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Our ancestors knew that a few years prior to Berra’s pronouncement.

The expansion of kingdoms and winning military campaigns were the most tangible historical examples of the role of strategic planning in human history. A 1990-era Harvard Business Review article by Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal claims that organisations began to implement strategic planning processes in the mid-1960s due to their successful role in winning World War II military campaigns.

The advent of corporate strategic planning was ignited by the opportunity for large companies to leverage growing demographic and geographic markets, further horizontal expansion and optimise the deployment of resources. The strategic planning era had begun.

Yet, despite the significant executive time and external resources deployed to leverage this characteristic of corporations, most strategic plans fail in that they rarely achieve their fullest potential. Certain perennial traps dog all strategies – whether these plans involve rebranding, cultural change or global expansion (to name a few) – and whether the organisations they affect are small or large, for profit, non-profit or governmental.

The statistic most cited in terms of failed strategic planning efforts is 67 percent from Inc Magazine, Harvard Business Review and Strategy & Training. Forbes cites the range of failure from 7 to 90 percent with the median being 50 percent. The famous book Balanced Scorecard by Robert Kaplan and David Norton also concludes a failure rate of 90 percent.

It would be easy enough to look back at most of the strategic plans you have been involved with and, given an honest assessment, would lead to your own conclusion that most have failed to realise their maximum potential. Dust off the old binder or extract a strategic plan from your cloud drive and you see for yourself, while experiencing nostalgia.

The process is laden with numerous opportunities for a failed end-product, and these issues are frequently cited in both academic and trade literature. Through awareness, forethought and good planning, their impact can be prevented and mitigated.

However, creating a compelling strategy is only half the battle. The next critical control point that will make or break success is excellent execution by operationalising the strategy. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”, said Sun Tzu in The Art of War.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of the revolutionary book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy, former Allied-Signal chairman and chief executive, and Ram Charan, a professor at the University of Michigan. The idea was not revolutionary, but their book and prescriptions revolutionised the importance of tactics in the success of a strategy implementation: “Unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they are pointless.” Thus, strategic planning and the operationalisation of it must work hand in hand to be successful.

Operationalising a strategy should begin during the planning process. Stephen Covey, American educator, author, businessman and keynote speaker, described this concept as beginning with the end in mind. Consider those involved in your strategic planning process. Does the team include individuals who have detailed knowledge of, and experience in, the downstream implications of the strategic plan? Having that insight during the planning process can provide a reasonable and informed view while you are planning, regarding the executability of the lofty ideas. It is essential that such individuals have an equal voice at the table and your organisational culture enables all voices to be heard.

Additionally, during the planning process it is important to consider the overall load for the organisation. Oftentimes strategic planning is done at the highest organisational level, in a kind of ‘big idea’ bubble. When it comes time to implement the new strategy, that bubble can burst as the various, sometimes minute realities of IT, finance and HR hit. Involving these operational teams in the development of the strategy can make the plan more robust, reducing rework and improving chances of success.

Finally, while the strategic plan is being developed, keep it simple. This approach will lead to a greater likelihood of the end user’s ability to convert the strategy into an executable operational plan. Most organisations may not have the luxury of a fully dedicated team to do this work, but this step is achievable even without it. Build this simplicity concept into the guiding principles you create in advance of commencing strategic planning.

The most successful strategic planning process in our experience is the ‘3x3x3’ model. This involves determining three priorities with three goals each that are to be planned and executed over a three-year period with annual reviews and refreshes. Neuroscience has found that three is the optimal number for memory, cognition and processing. Strategic priorities should be enablers of the organisation’s mission or purpose.

Regardless of what strategic planning process is utilised, there will be steps ahead – one after the other in sequence. How do you proceed?

The key to successfully operationalising a strategic plan – the big ideas – is to break them down into manageable parts. Beginning with the strategic priorities, break each down into specific goals. Then for each goal, identify what are the steps needed to achieve each goal. These should eventually become very granular. Once there is an exhaustive catalogue of tactics for the entire strategic plan, the next step is to calendarise them all, at least by quarter, if not monthly, in a paced and sequenced manner that takes dependencies into consideration. Each tactic should clearly state the resources required including money, technology and who is responsible for the execution.

The concept of beginning with the end in mind is particularly relevant at this ‘break-it-down’ phase. If you had the right people involved in the process and were continuously in consideration of the executional implications, at this stage in the process, it will be easy to incorporate these new tactics into your workplans.

The result is an integrated workplan that has all the tactics that need to be executed on a quarterly, monthly and weekly basis, with clearly defined accountabilities and timelines. In the planning phase, you can also review the resource load on specific departments or individuals and adjust either the timeline or who is responsible for the tactic.

Now you have an operationalised strategy with the specific tactics needed to ensure the strategic ideas are achieved, with each sequenced, resourced and given specific deadlines that take into consideration the workload of all participants, the dependency of each step and all resource needs, including financial, technological and external. Properly socialising the operational plan will provide additional sets of eyes and identify potential blind spots. As importantly, there is broad buy-in and belief in the objective, ideas and executability of the entire strategic plan.

Once the plan is in the implementation phase, following up and following through on each of the tactics will be key components of excellent execution. These steps here include periodic review meetings with the plan participants, written updates, recognition for big wins and coaching for the plan players.

Coaching is an opportunistic component of operationalising a strategic plan. The focus should be broader than why the work is or is not getting done. The Center for Creative Leadership says that 70 percent of employee development is on the job. Providing feedback pertaining to how the employee is doing the work is invaluable to building talent, one of the most important roles of a 21st century leader.

Once implementation is underway, an organisation is going to learn more about the veracity and relevance of its strategic plan. Displaying organisational agility and courage to revisit the strategy and make course corrections will be vital.

In summary, dream big. If you involve your teams, consider their load, keep it simple, break it down, plan forward, build buy-in and prepare to change direction as needed, you will achieve your organisational outcomes.

“We have a strategic plan, it’s called doing things”, said Herb Kelleher, retired founder of the acclaimed Southwest Airlines. It is the execution of the big ideas which make them matter.

 

Samir Gupte is the chief change officer of Samiracles Consulting. He can be contacted by email: samir@samiracles.com.

© Financier Worldwide

BY

Samir Gupte

Samiracles Consulting

©2001-2024 Financier Worldwide Ltd. All rights reserved. Any statements expressed on this website are understood to be general opinions and should not be relied upon as legal, financial or any other form of professional advice. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the authors’ current or previous employers, or clients. The publisher, authors and authors' firms are not responsible for any loss third parties may suffer in connection with information or materials presented on this website, or use of any such information or materials by any third parties.