How To Make Company Strategy Work

“Only 5% of employees understand their company’s strategy. This makes successful execution nearly impossible. So how can you help frontline employees not only understand but get behind your company’s strategy?” Source: “Making Your Strategy Work on the Frontline,” Harvard Business Review Blog, 6/24/2010.


Strategy may seem simple for senior management who can often look down on the organisation as a whole. However, strategy is only effective in so far as it is interpreted and implemented by people at ground level. How can employees know what to do if they don't understand the overall plan? As Michael Porter has continually reminded us,  if the salesperson doesn't know what the strategy is, he won't know which customers to call on. And if the engineer doesn't know what the strategy is, he wont know what products to build. The most successful leaders are the ones who make it their job to teach and communicate their company's strategy at every opportunity.       

True Strategic Planning

According to Harvard Business School research and an April 2010 article in Chief Learning Officer titled “The Four Myths of Strategy,” more than 90% of all corporate strategies are “not executed successfully,” or the strategies themselves are inferior from the start.

“In reality, most companies craft a half-baked strategic plan that is only partially implemented and has sketchy buy-in at best,” claims the article.

The article then details four commonly held myths about the strategic planning process, including: Myth #1: Content is King; Myth #2: Consensus Equals Success; Myth #3: Exclusion is Efficient; Myth #4: Communication Creates Commitment.

“Strategic planning is not an accounting and forecasting exercise,” the article shares. “It’s not a weekend off-site spent in a room, hashing out who’s willing to go along with what. And it’s not a bunch of words put to paper and placed in a binder. It is a living, breathing, organic leadership action. It requires not a calculator, but the courage and conviction to inspire everyone to be their best and get on the same page. As Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola once said: ‘The first step in making a good movie is getting everyone involved to be making the same movie.’”

You can read the full article Here

Jobs for over 40s

Many readers of this post may be looking for new jobs or business opportunities. A new blog has been created which promises to be valuable and interesting to people who are interested in jobs for over 40s. You may wish to subscribe to the blog to receive fresh information and ideas on a regular basis. Here is the link:

Jobs for over 40s

Best Innovation quotation

“We often think of grand innovations, like the invention of the light bulb, as what drives economic growth. But equally important, and perhaps more important, are the 1,001 small innovations that regular business managers and line workers do every day at their jobs.”

- Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan economist and Digital-Business Expert, as quoted in the MIT Sloan Management Review

Innovation Quote of the week

“The ROI on innovation is survival.”

- Andrew Howlett, CEO of Rain, a marketing company

Think Winning Through Innovation & Creativity

Leadership Return on Investment

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Famous Leadership Quote

“Genius is the fruit of a thousand failures.”

- Greg Linden, as quoted in the MIT Sloan Management Review