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Gaelle Lamotte shares an article based on an interview with Business Reporter where she talked about strategy execution, competitive advantage, and staying agile. 

In a world of disruptive businesses, overwhelming information and relentless change, companies have to master the art of strategy execution to be agile enough to capitalise on growth opportunities. Excellence in execution is what makes the difference between good strategies and success in the marketplace for your customers, partners and employees, and ultimately investors and shareholders.

Strategy execution is the discipline of harnessing your talent, assets, core capabilities and innovation in order for your strategies to deliver results. Leaders have a responsibility to build agreement and engage people around a compelling and commonly understood strategy execution roadmap. The true test of a management team is its ability to learn from the organisation’s performance and results, to stay focused on both the journey it chose to travel as well as its strategic destination.

Well thought out strategies alone are not enough. A good strategy can die as a plan because it is not translated into action.

Strategy execution is complex. It is not like a machine that systematically churns out a product predictably and consistently. Implementing strategy is a multi-faceted endeavor because it draws on all areas of an organisation and requires a diversity of skill sets. Strategies only succeed when everyone is engaged and on the same page.

So what does it really mean for an organisation to be good at executing its strategy?

It means that leaders and managers have a deep understanding of their organisation’s capabilities, are explicit about the choices they make and understand implications across the business. For example, should we grow our market presence organically or through acquisition, and what is the likely impact on our hiring and training programme? Will investing in innovation keep our customers loyal or do they value our efficiency of service more? How do we uphold our values and how does that affect the suppliers we deal with? Our choices must come together into a coherent and compelling roadmap and drive the change required to reach our aspirations.

Key points include:

• Understanding an organization’s capabilities
• Strategy execution
• Decision making and action

Watch the interview and read the full article, How do you stay agile but steer your strategy steadfastly towards your vision?, on LinkedIn.