Abstract

Despite the availability of many methodologies, management approaches, and literature on strategy execution, research suggests that seven out of ten organizations fail to successfully execute their strategies. However, three out of ten organizations do appear to succeed. To find out what these organizations do differently, ten key management elements for successful strategy execution were identified from the literature as well as seven business benefits that could be realized if these elements were performed effectively. Next, 93 organizations were surveyed, followed by focus group meetings with senior managers. While mastery of formal methodologies and development of business cases are important, successful strategy execution is critically dependent on having a portfolio of change programs that are explicitly aligned with the organization’s strategy. Further, this portfolio needs to be supported by the strategic leadership team and managed within a culture conducive to change. There are specific actions that organizations need to take to identify which elements of their strategy execution capability need to improve in order to take their performance to the next level.