Why Do Strategies Fail?

Strategy Doesn’t’ Matter?   Part 4

With the pace of change in today’s business and technology, it would be nearly impossible for top Leadership to be too strategic, unless it isolates leadership from what the organization actually does.   Leadership must know where they are, their base line, why and where they are going and its effects.  Providing it’s a good strategy, the execution plan must determine if it can be successfully implemented and how.  This is what top leadership is hired and paid to do! There is no more crucial function than change strategy and it becomes more critical the larger and more diverse the company grows.

Implementation is the hands on work, oversight and due diligence.  However, undertaking a strategy change must represent more than an idea or feeling.  It needs to be backed up with data and facts.  Many strategy makers are also assigned a role in developing the execution plan for implementation.  The larger the company the more difficult implementation becomes and the greater the need for the right strategy coupled with a successful execution plan. 

The biggest roadblocks to successfully implementing any plan are the leaders in charge of and the management implementing it.  Not knowing or understanding your own organizational capabilities, limitations and/or motivations is foolish.  Unfortunately, most companies have let managers manage their areas devoid of real and consistent cultural leadership and oversight.  Management culture defines the what, how and why management exists in the first place…. the basic building blocks and backbone of the company’s cultural essence or identity, the organization’s DNA. 

Without a leader, or group of cultural leaders, who value(s) certain actions and beliefs, who do certain things in a certain way and behave in ways that help the group succeed, the culture of the company becomes whatever each department manager thinks and manages it to be.  This is the “My way (or the highway)” culture, full of favoritism, secrecy, intrigue, anger, infighting and poisonous as well as (usually) illegal people policies and practices.  This type of management culture will doom even a good strategy. 

Next: My way (or the highway) management culture fails.  Why?