MODULE 6 – LEADING AND IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY

Identify & discuss the key challenges that confront the strategy implementation process * It needs a supportive environment & has pressures of changing external environment. * Reasons for failure or under-achievement: * Transforming strategic thinking into action * Implementation treated as an add-on & a lower-level employee task. * Strategy achieved best when those in charge of implementation also involved in strategic analysis & formulation process from the start. * Managers who implement are usually too busy with everyday running of operations to become involved in planning process or may be excluded. * Failing the 3Cs of communication, commitment & coordination * Poor communication & lack of commitment & inability to manage change effectively. Poor or vague strategy. Lack of buy-in & ownership from key manager & employees. * Lack of coordination or alignment between an organisation’s strategy & its functional units, processes & systems. * Lack of a model, inadequate information sharing, unclear lines of responsibility & accountability, unsupportive power structure. * Paralysis by analysis * Too much focus on analysis & formulation, relaxing on way resources are allocated & way in which operational decisions are made. Leaders trained to formulate not implement. * Important not to combine financial & budgetary processes with strategic intent & direction. * Risk that strategic planning will stifle creativity & innovation. * Politics & resistance * Political pressures pose a threat. Once strategy documented it’s more accessible to rivals. * 2 forces. Rational (explicit)– openness, communication,