Initiative management is the point where organisational performance meets individual performance, where people are added to the equation, where your strategy is translated into practice or remains on paper forever. It’s a crucial Strategy Execution step.
The weakest link
But unfortunately, initiative management also proves to be the weakest link in the execution chain. Our research clearly shows that it’s the implementation activity where almost all companies lose most of their strategic potential – it proves to be the biggest hole in the road between the city ‘strategy’ and the town ‘performance’.
As few as 27 percent believe that the strategic initiatives are being managed correctly. So what goes wrong? Unfortunately, the list is quite long. The 4 main reasons are:
- 37 percent staff their initiatives poorly.
- 34 percent budget inadequately.
- 26 percent fail to create clear ownership.
- 21 percent launch the wrong projects.
The top performers
Fortunately there are exceptions: the top performers. These organisations are able to translate their overall strategy into the appropriate strategic initiatives that deliver what the strategy promises. Let’s look at what we can learn from the best-in-class. We identified the 5 initiative management fundamentals that separate the poor, the good and the great. The best-in-class outperform all the others in each of these 5 activities.
They are:
- Collect, select and prioritise the right initiatives.
- Optimise resource allocation and planning.
- Develop project managers.
- Excel in project and programme management.
- Manage the overall strategic initiative portfolio.
