What’s involved in making Strategic Plans Successful

“A mediocre strategy well executed is better than a great strategy poorly executed,”

Martin, 2010

Once an organization commits to a plan, the primary focus changes to that of converting the plan into actions, which will lead to the desired results. The success of a strategic plan comes down to both managers and people the organization has in place to execute the plan. However, it is important to note, due to the wide range of strategic plans, economic environments, and all the reasons for strategies, there’s no definitive recipe for the successful execution of any strategy.

Ten basic components of the strategic execution process;

1.    Staffing

2.    Developing resources

3.    Creating a strategy-supportive environment

4.    Allocating resources

5.    Policies and procedures

6.    Best practices and business process

7.    Information and operating systems

8.    Rewards and incentives

9.    Corporate culture

10. Internal leadership

When looking at this list, it’s important to notice they are not just bullet points, these are number points which do provide a hierarchy to the list, the most important being the proper staffing of people and managers and ensuring they are in the right positions. Without the proper staffing, the execution of any plan may be poor to nonexistent, which plays to the quote, in the beginning, it doesn’t matter how great the plan is if the execution is poor it’s not going to mean much, and may not be any better than doing nothing at all. Keep in mind the above list isn’t exactly a recipe, however, regardless of the strategic plan, and situations presented, following this list will aid in achieving desirable results, some people may even say most of this list is common sense. When it comes to executing strategy, the image below says it all.

A strategy on paper may look good and give executives something to talk about and help to get people excited, however, without the execution and the means and process in place to do so, simply put, it means nothing.

Reference: Martin, 2010, The Execution Trap, https://hbr.org/2010/07/the-execution-trap