10 managerial tasks crop up repeatedly in
company efforts to execute strategy:
staffing the
organization well
|
building the
necessary organizational capabilities
|
creating a
supportive organizational structure
|
allocating
sufficient resource
|
instituting
supportive policies and procedures
|
adopting processes
for continuous improvement
|
installing systems
that enable proficient company operations
|
tying incentives
to the achievement of desired targets
|
instilling the
right corporate culture
|
exercising
internal leadership
|
The two best signs
of good strategy execution are whether a company is meeting or beating its
performance targets and performing value chain activities in a manner that is
conducive to company-wide operating excellence. Shortfalls
in performance signal weak strategy, weak execution, or both.
Building an
organization capable of good strategy execution entails three types of
organization-building actions:
staffing the organization
assembling a
talented management team, and recruiting and retaining employees with the
needed experience, technical skills, and intellectual capital
building and strengthening core competencies and competitive
capabilities
developing
proficiencies in performing strategy-critical value chain activities and
updating them to match changing market conditions and customer expectations
structuring the organization and work effort
instituting
organizational arrangements that facilitate good strategy execution, deciding
how much decision-making authority to delegate, and managing external
relationships
Structuring the
organization and organizing the work effort in a strategy supportive fashion
has four aspects:
·
deciding which value
chain activities to perform internally and which ones to outsource
·
aligning the firm's
organizational structure with its strategy
·
deciding how much
authority to centralize at the top and how much to delegate to down-the-line
managers and employees
·
facilitating the
necessary collaboration and coordination with external partners and strategic
allies.
To align the firm's
organizational structure with its strategy, it is important to make
strategy-critical activities the main building blocks. There are four basic
types of organizational structures: the simple structure, the functional
structure, the multi divisional structure, and the matrix structure.
Which is most appropriate depends on the firm's size, complexity, and
strategy.
that all for today
