Aug 20
Executing Your Strategy
Written by Coach Arlene L. Martin
How Good are You at Executing on Your Business Strategy?
Let’s look at a scenario with two companies.
Company A and Company B.
Company A has completed the first quarter with a thorough review of its performance in these first three months of 2018. That review covered the achievements of their targets – comparing the actual results with the desired results set at the start of the year. In addition to the assessment of their targets, the team at Firm A also reviewed the specific activities and actions – noting which worked and which ones didn’t, and determining, as well, some that simply need adjustments in order to work better in the future.
Company B doesn’t have a clue. They’re not sure how they got the results they did. Revenue was close to target, and it was higher this year, however how come there was no profit? And after all that effort in marketing, why didn’t they reach the sales target they had set? After all, they did far more marketing than in the previous period so revenues should show a similar increase…
The difference in one firm over another was not the absence of having a plan, it was how well the plan was executed.
How often do you hear about “strategic planning”? Yet, how often do we discuss and actually do “strategic implementation”? The well-written and thoroughly developed plan works best with strategic execution. However how do you achieve that? Here are a few tips:
Specify activities: a plan developed will most likely list all the relevant and best strategies to attain the goal, however may not extend to the specific actions to be undertaken …
Schedule activities: Once the activities are listed, they should be assigned to specific weeks in the quarter. It is important to note best sequencing, resources required being available for optimum execution and other activities (scheduled by other entities) targeting or engaging your market;
Budget your activities: identify all the costs associated with executing the activity and request or allocate the funding (with cash flow timing considerations) to make sure you will be able to execute. Do the same of the team resources for execution;
Assess each activity: having invested in an activity, measure its results and effectiveness and write down all your lessons. You have invested in data and or information in the activity – reap this investment by using the data for future decisions.
With ten [10] weeks remaining, there’s still time to execute well in Q2! Here are some steps:
- Review or complete the plan for the quarter
- Specify activities for each goal,
- Schedule the activities,
- Budget for the activities;
- Periodically update or review – this may be in weekly meetings and monthly reviews;
- Assess each activity once completed.
Have a very successful Q2 – Work your plan to make it work!
