Week 4 of our focus on STRATEGY is all about Execution. If you have missed any of the previous weeks, I’ve provided the links here:
Week 1 – Reconnect with your business strategy
Week 2 – The Power of the SWOT
Week 3 – Key Elements of a Successful Business Strategy
In last week’s challenge, we outlined one of the key elements of building a successful business strategy – identify the keys to execution. I’d like to delve into this further in this week’s challenge.
Ensuring that you and your team are executing your business strategy day in and day out is a leader’s most important job. This is often the difference between you and your competitors. If your competitors are getting more done than you in the here and now – they are beating you! Execution is not just something that gets done. It is your own specific set of behaviors and techniques that you and your team master.
If you have a strategy that your organization is not capable of executing, you haven’t set yourself up for success very well have you? It is only when you pair strategy with execution simultaneously that you ensure you have developed the right strategy for your company – not just some pie in the sky wish list that you will never accomplish.
Your challenge this week is to make sure you can execute your strategy. Ask yourself these questions and have a robust dialogue about the answers with your team. I’ve recommended this several times before, so hopefully it is starting to sound familiar - set aside 90 minutes to go through this first thing in the morning completely undistracted – no phones, emails or texts. This is a discipline that when carried out weekly or better yet daily will set you apart from your competitors.
- Is your strategy in sync with the marketplace? Is your team well versed about the competition and what they are doing to serve their customer segments and how they might prevent your company from serving them. You have to understand the competitive landscape to ensure your strategy is a viable one.
- Does your organization have the capability to execute the strategy? Do you have the right sales team in place to win new business? Do you have the right technology in place? Do you have a cost structure that will allow you to compete profitably? Here is where a tight and consistent linkage between strategy and people processes becomes critical.
- Is your Strategy Sharply Focused? Have you clearly identified no more than 3 – 5 priorities to avoid fragmentation of effort? Is your leadership focused on 1 or 2 specific markets and offerings to pursue or are they trying to take on too much simultaneously? Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your strategy has to be overly complex or challenging. That will only lead you to having a scattered plan that results in a dilution of efforts. Keep it simple and focused.
- Are You Choosing the Right Opportunities? Are your ideas consistent with the realities of the marketplace? Does it mesh with your organizations capabilities? Are you pursuing more ideas than you can handle? Will you make money with these ideas? – No matter how well you execute, the risk of failure increases markedly when the ideas you develop don’t fit with your existing capabilities or force your to acquire those capabilities at too high a cost.
Linking people, strategy and operations together is the foundation for business success. Mastering how each of these processes work together is vital to creating and executing your strategy – AND BEATING THE COMPETITION!
Sincerely,
Bruce Rector
The Rector Group
Tel: 954-356-0439
brector@therectorgroup.com
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