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.