Publications

• 30 Second Ideas
• Accounting Updates
• Alerts
• Articles
• Business Surveys
• Construction Edge
• Healthcare Edge
• Insurance Edge
• Legal Talent
• Manufacturing Edge
• Not-for-Profit Edge
• Quick Links & Good Ideas
• SEC Edge
• Strategy Insights Blog
• Surviving the Upturn
• Tax Highlights

A Great Strategy is Like a Stream. Except It Flows Both Ways.

One of the questions posited in “The Execution Trap” (by Roger Martin in the Harvard Business Review, August 2010) is . . . Can you “draw a line in the organization above which strategy happens and below which execution does?” If not, Martin asks, then, “...what is the use of the distinction between... formulation and implementation?”      

For years, we have had the fundamental belief that strategy and execution are linked. That it is not for the senior management team to strategize and for the line workers to execute, but for leaders to create high-level plans and to work closely with the people below them to translate these plans into representative actions.

In “The Execution Trap,” Martin calls this the “choice cascade” and likens it to a river. He describes strategy as a choice cascade in which “those at the top make broader, more abstract choices involving larger, long-term investments whereas those toward the bottom make more concrete, day-to-day decisions that directly influence customer service and satisfaction.” In the river analogy, the senior team decides where the river will flow, but the people “downstream” must be empowered to use their “best judgment in the scenarios they encounter.” The tighter you try to control the actions of the “choiceless doers” the more you actually box them in from providing value-added services to customers “rather than basing . . . actions on choices about what would be best for the customer within the broad bounds of the strategy.” You also stop them from testing the theory of your strategy on the realities they face day to day.      

This idea leads nicely to Martin’s other critical point on the choice-cascade model for strategy execution: upstream input. The premise is that a poorly executed strategy is actually a bad strategy since it does not take execution into consideration. A critical element of execution is the ability for frontline workers to let those upstream understand where and why the details of the execution need tweaking. Without an ability to adjust the implementation (staying within the broader strategy, of course), the execution will fail and, therefore, so will the overall strategy. In short: an upstream/downstream feedback loop is essential.      

As you are working on your strategy, or considering its execution, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can customer-facing staff make decisions that will delight the customers or will they be constrained to simply state policy?
• How can they provide upstream feedback on where the implementation has made it easier for them to please customers and drive additional revenue, and where it has not?
• Are you willing to not sweat the “small stuff” so long as the broader strategy is being met?
• Have you articulated the “why” behind the strategy? To every level of the organization?
• Have you created implementation teams at every stage of the stream and are you willing to assure an open, honest feedback loop can occur at each of these stages?

     Without a strategy, your organization is on a road to nowhere. (Or on a road to some random place.) But having a strategy that does not take execution into consideration, or assumes execution is a job for lower-level people, is only the beginning of a strategy. You need to link strategy to execution and plan for how it will be implemented, adjusted to the realities on the front line, and provide ways in which those at every level of your organization are empowered to make the lives of their customers and coworkers better – all without falling outside the general boundaries of the overall strategic goals.      

Are you ready to pick your destination and get on the road?

This publication is part of Blackman Kallick’s marketing of professional services, and is not written tax advice directed at the specific facts and circumstances of any person and/or entity. Contents of this publication are of a general nature, and you should not act on this information without obtaining professional advice from your business advisor that is appropriately tailored to your individual needs and circumstances. This written advice is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.