Combining Strategy and Performance

My learnings from an article by Michael Mankins and Richard Steele:

Majority companies deliver only 63% of their potential financial turnover. The reason – mismatch between execution and strategy. Leaders often strive for better execution without a sound strategy or try to find newer strategies but do not execute them properly. These situations can be avoided by linking strategic planning and execution and then improving both simultaneously.

There are seven rules for successful strategy execution:

Keep it simple: Clearly describing the company’s dos and don’ts and avoiding vague lofty goals.

Challenge assumptions: Assumptions made during strategy formation must be in line with real market scenario and competitor as well as consumer behaviour

Speak the same language: The entire organization, from top leaders, to finance, marketing, operations and other departments, must all be one the same page regarding the strategy to be followed.

Discuss resource deployments early: Proper planning and forecasting by various departments regarding resource deployment during strategy formation is important.

Identify priorities: Strategic priorities must be made explicit, for everyone to know what to aim for and work for.

Continuously monitor performance: Tracking of real-time results against the proposed plan is important to ensure that the execution is on the right path.

Develop execution ability: Selecting the right persons to execute the strategy is as important as designing the strategy itself.