The idea that results are what matter is so ingrained in American culture as to have created its own cliché factory: After all, the proof is in the pudding, actions speak louder than words, and we'll see when the rubber hits the road. So why does the business literature spend so much time discussing strategy, yet relatively little time on implementation? Because implementation is hard, get-your-fingernails-dirty work—and who wants to read that?
So kudos to authors Brache and Bodley-Scott, who not only tackle the subject but also write under the not-so-sexy title Implementation. The line was not long to get our hands on the book.
For most executives and managers, it's implementation, not strategy, that will make or break their careers. The book points to Sony's Nobuyuki Idei, who was among the first to see the convergence of media and electronics. But Idei's strategy to take advantage of that vision bounced off the company's numerous hardened silos. Another target is former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who made a big bet to buy Compaq and create a PC and consumer electronics dynamo. “She failed to communicate that what/why/how of her strategy effectively and to build the commitment of the people who were critical to its implementation,” the book states. “Strategic accomplishment was not built into expectations, measures, rewards, and feedback.”
Execution is a team effort requiring great leadership, the book stresses. Organizations must develop a disciplined process that takes the grand vision developed in the C-suite and drives it through every nook and cranny of the enterprise. The authors introduce methodology developed at their consulting firm, Kepner-Tregoe, which has eight components: leadership, business processes, goals and measurement, human capabilities, knowledge management, organizational structure and, finally, roles, culture, and issue resolution.
What kills strategic implementation? The authors earmark several stumbling points, including launching the wrong initiatives or too many, failure to involve the right people, bad monitoring, and lack of patience. These and more failures are covered in their own chapters.
Implementation is a very strong description of the art and science of getting things done. Should you read it? As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
- Sean Silverthorne