In many organisations, Strategy Execution is still a black box. You throw your strategy in one end and performance comes out the other end. But nobody really knows what did the trick. It’s impossible to say what worked and what didn’t. Even worse, companies change things for the worse because they don’t know the key elements of their execution success.
So, as with all other business activities, organisations need to measure their performance. It’s time to open the implementation box and see what’s inside. Here’s how:
- Find the strong and weak points of your execution process. If possible, compare them against your competitors. Evaluate the complete process or zoom in on one or two steps. Do the exercise for the organisation, one or more divisions, or start with only a small team.
- Once you have gained these insights, focus your energy on those things that matter most for the organisation. In other words, set priorities.
- Don’t forget to keep doing what you do well. Once you’ve identified your strong points, make sure you keep them best-in-class.
- Have a long-term perspective. It takes time to build capabilities. Small organisations should count on 18 months to become best-in-class. For a large multinational, it can take up to three years to get there. Your measurement approach should take the long-term into account.
- Set intermediate goals and measure your progress. While you do want a long-term measurement perspective, you also want to define and track intermediate targets.
