Successful Strategy Implementation (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2,7, Munich University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: Mostly, companies are facing the question: Are we doing the right things? But rarely: Are we doing the things right? (cf. Kreikebaum et al. 2011, p. 161) So, what is the difference between these two questions? The first one is about the companies' strategy, the second about the implementation of it. As simple as it sounds - it is not! A great strategy or breakthrough technology is only then a competitive advantage, if it is implemented and executed firmly. Unfortunately, most companies fail at this attempt (cf. Neilson et al. 2008, p. 143).

A variety of studies has shown that there is a great gap between strategy development and strategy implementation. A study from Corboy & O'Corrbui claim that nearly 70% (cf. Corboy & O'Corrbui 1999, p. 29) of strategic plans are not implemented successfully; different ones say the numbers of failure are even much higher and revolve around 90% (cf. DeLisi 2001, p. 2; Riekhof & Offermann 2006, p. 31).

Many managerial books are focusing on the strategy development, the question how to find the right strategy, but not that many face the question how to implement the ideas into practice. As the strategy development processes work well and a vast number of well-tested tools for analysis and development of strategies as well as high-quality management books concentrating on strategy derivation processes exist, the gap is on the side of the strategy implementation. In the meantime, all over the world corporations are losing billions and simultaneously jeopardizing their future while failing in strategy execution and implementation.

In practice, there is still a lack of coordination of strategy implementation processes. On the one hand there is no consistency of strategy programs especially when it comes to realisation of strategies and on the other hand there are too many or impropriate tools in use. While hundreds of different strategy tools and methods are today available, also in computerized form and included into specific processes, there is still a lack of information how to use them efficiently and how to implement them into the strategic roadmap.

This paper is closing the gap between strategy and practice, facing the issues of strategy implementation and presenting a checklist for successful strategy implementation