How to implement your strategy....

By Stuart Ross - High Growth

After completing a strategy process, a lot of managing directors I work with are tempted to breathe a sigh of relief. However, if you think going through the process of discussing strategy and creating a plan means it will magically be implemented, think again. Only 10% of companies implement their strategy successfully.

A few years ago, Fortune Magazine published a surprising statistic that stated only 10% of employees understand their company’s strategy. If employees don’t understand their company’s strategy, how can they possibly be expected to implement it? Strategy implementation requires its own effort and plan of action. The following three steps will help you start this process:

Innovation is Meaningless!

  

Recent research by a large multinational organisation concluded that the word ‘innovation’ has become so overused that it no longer has any useful meaning for their customers. Indeed, it is positively damaging because the perception is that ‘innovation’ is rather boring incremental stuff. Imagination is no longer part of the organisational psyche.

This aligns very well with my own experience and a number of you will have heard me banging on about how ‘labels’, such as ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ are very powerful when applied as they were intended.