Strategy Execution Playbook

Introduction

Strategy Execution Playbook

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can be prioritized and tested. These hypotheses are then verified by gathering and analyzing data. The DEVELOP section helps the project team zero in on ”solutions.” The team is able to propose a range of options and evaluate them before proposing "the" solution that is most feasible, desirable, viable and sustainable to execute. To do so, the team creates a compelling vision and engages with and takes input from key stakeholders. This helps it envisage the most optimal solution, for which it then creates a compelling case and pitches it to stakeholders using a solution roadmap.

This Playbook is designed to be a trusted companion for sponsors, teams or leaders of strategic initiatives. 1 It provides the necessary theoretical frameworks and practical tools to help guide teams in successfully implementing strategic initiatives (interchangeably referred to as “projects” 2 in this Playbook). The Playbook follows a methodological guideline for implementing both “exploratory initiatives” 3 and “exploitative initiatives.” 4 [15] This is done in a step by-step, modular way (explained in more detail in the ”Setting up for success” section). The Playbook’s structure broadly follows the phases of a strategic initiative’s execution – EXPLORE–DEVELOP– DO–EMBED. In the EXPLORE section of this Playbook, we focus on team formation, the project scope and understanding the business stakes. At this stage, the key strategic question – the one question that your entire project answers – is identified, the stakeholders are consulted and the outcome expectations are clarified. At the end of this stage, the project team performs a robust diagnosis of the current situation and identifies the likely root causes or opportunities for improvement. It progresses from identifying key questions to developing a set of hypotheses (often based on assumptions) that

The roadmap provides the logic behind the sequencing of various actions and should guide teams on the ”what” and ”how” that are needed to ensure effective execution. The DO section provides detailed guidance on piloting the solution, onboarding result critical stakeholders across the organization, managing change and designing a project monitoring system to evaluate the performance of the initiative deployment. It also includes details on an after-action review, which will ensure broader learning is captured. Finally, the EMBED section helps sustain the initiative within the organization and ensure market success. You may have spent significant time and energy in the EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO phase building the future, but without ensuring the adoption of practices and products, the return on investment will be difficult to demonstrate. The EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO–EMBED parts of the book are broken into different steps (interchangeably referred to as chapters). Each part aims to identify the specific steps that the project team needs to take. Before you delve into the EXPLORE–DEVELOP–DO– EMBED phases of any strategic initiative, we call your attention to the very first step – Setting up for success. In this section, we introduce the project and team management philosophy. We recommend you start with these preliminary frameworks and tools to ensure a strong foundation is established for your initiative team and we encourage you to come back to these tools as and when needed during any of the EXPLORE– DEVELOP–DO–EMBED phases. Upon completion of your

initiative, we also encourage you to review the impact you have achieved and its wider implications for the organization and you as an individual. At the end of the Playbook, we refer to the most common management tools that will help you in your strategic initiative decision making. Keep in mind that critical thinking is at the core of any approach you take or tool you use for your strategic initiative. So, carefully think about which framework works best for your initiative – be a critical thinker yourself as you apply the frameworks and tools. While the Playbook by no means presents all available tools and frameworks, it includes those that, based on years of experience with organizational transformations and strategic initiative implementations, we have seen work well. The tools used depend not only on their inherent properties, but also on the context and interpretations of those selecting the tools. While we think there are tools that fit certain situations better than others, there isn’t a right or wrong tool for each situation. Each person’s choice of tool is shaped by their preferences, which will likely influence their decision and the outcome. We often find that it is not the “fit” of the tool with a particular situation which determines whether or not it will be used. Rather, such a choice is dictated by the ease and standardized way in which such a tool can be deployed in an organization. According to Jarzabkowski and Kaplan [51] , tools that are simple and offer clear visual representations are easier to remember and use. Quantitative tools are attractive to users because numbers can signal rationality, but this attractiveness is offset by potentially greater difficulty in using the tool.

1 By strategic initiative, we mean an action-oriented choice through which an organization translates its goals and visions into practice in order to help achieve the organization’s success over the next few years. 2 A project is a specific strategic initiative that you as a learner and practitioner and your team are assigned to execute. 3 Exploration focuses on finding innovations beyond the current horizon. The business impact is derived from exploring new possibilities that will drive growth through new products and/or services in the longer term. 4 Exploitation requires looking for ways to improve existing operations and so the focus is on business efficiency [15] . The business impact is derived from improvements that make current practices more efficient (or help exploit within the existing operational context) typically in the short-term.

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