The 8 – a Process View on Strategy Execution
Strategy Execution is a complex process. In fact, it’s a mix of several processes—and the ideal process picture is different for each organization.
But even with a different mix, each best-in-class strategy execution process should include some basic building blocks. Luckily, many of them are readily available within most organizations. They include:
- Tried and tested approaches for reviewing a strategy Strategy
- cascade tools, the Balanced Scorecard being the best known
- Techniques to structure, execute, and monitor strategic projects
- A proven approach to set, monitor, and evaluate individual objectives
What is lacking however, is a simple framework to integrate and align all of these different building blocks. And that’s where the 8 comes in. It combines the most important building blocks into a coherent image.
The 8 doesn’t cover all of the ins and outs of the strategy execution process. It’s not supposed to. It’s not a rigid step-by-step task. But it does provide a necessary, simple framework for strategy execution. And the 8 shows the importance of aligning individual and organizational performance, one of the most important things you can do to improve your success rate.
You can make your execution framework more complex if you prefer. For the organizational cycle in particular, there are some sophisticated models around. While I like the insights that these conceptual models provide, their complexity makes them unsuitable as a day-to-day instrument for the whole organization.
Key Point
The 8 is a simple, visually strong and easy-to-communicate strategy execution framework that combines individual and organizational performance.
