The strategy implementation process is paramount for any company that wishes to thrive in tomorrow’s marketplace. This process features the long-term goals of an organisation and how to achieve them.

Strategy implementation translates an organisation’s strategy into real action, with a main aim of achieving set targets.

However, this process involves two distinct dimensions; the human aspect of strategy implementation and the process of putting it into action. Even though more attention is given to the process of strategy implementation, the human aspects are often ignored.

This article will take you through the process of strategy implementation and explain more about the human part. So read on to the end to learn more.

How It Works

Basically, strategy implementation refers to is the process of executing plans and strategies with the sole aim of accomplishing an organisation’s long-term goals.

Strategy implementation is designed to turn strategies into given actions that lead to achievement of a company’s objectives.

It’s crucial to remember that any actions undertaken by a company depend not only on the system but also on the human aspect of the business. The support, capability and acceptance of staff affect or determine the ultimate success of any given strategy.

It’s therefore important to get assistance, the right motivation and hard work from employees at all levels. In the absence of this combination, strategy implementation will be impossible.

What Are The fundamentals?

There are several key factors that drive the strategy implementation process. By putting in place all the necessary requirements, implementing a strategy can be as easy as ABC…

Team

The human aspects of implementing a strategy directly involve the people in that organisation. These are the employees who work hard at the shared goal of implementing a particular company strategy. Hence, effective management of employees is an important factor to strategy implementation.

Of course by now you understand that to properly implement a strategy people are an important aspect of it. However, two criteria must be followed so as to get the best out of people.

1. Your workforce should include adequate number of people to support your goals.
2. The people in your teams should be skilled or capable enough to work towards achieving the goal you set for them.

While you can always hire more staff to fill gaps, you must ensure that the people being hired are well-equipped with relevant skills to propel your organisation forward.

This is one question that determines your interview process and the role played by your HR manager. While hiring people with the required experience is important, finding people to serve you in the longer term should also be a priority. Hire people who believe in your goals and are determined to help you achieve your long-term strategy.

Resources

Resources are one of the key pillars of strategy implementation. Without adequate, continuously available resources, all your efforts might not bear any fruit. Resource management is a vital part of strategy implementation.

There are two factors that help to ensure proper resource allocation:

1. Available resources for allocation.
2. The non-existent resources required for strategy implementation.

Since continuous resource is required for effective strategy implementation, you have to ensure the resources exist. In the meantime, be sure to properly allocate any available resources.

Organisational Structure

An organisational structure refers to the function, relationship, responsibility and communication of employees within a corporation. Any organisation having a clear-cut structure can easily achieve the company objectives than one with a muddled structure.

An organisation’s structure should be transparent, enabling any employee to communicate with the supervisor with ease and vice versa. Proper management, communication between employees and transparent inter-departmental relationships make for a great-achiever organisation.

Culture

This is another key factor in strategy implementation. A good company culture where employees feel comfortable enables work to be done faster. When a culture of responsibility is cultivated amongst employees, they take responsibility for their own actions hence promoting a sense of reward and accountability.

The company culture should also provide a lively and open atmosphere where everyone stays motivated to execute their tasks while doing their best to attain the shared goal.

Tools

In today’s modern age, strategy and digital systems are intertwined. You can utilise various tools to handle multiple tasks in your business. As we focus on the human aspects of strategy implementation, you should remember that support offered by a given tool is in terms of human benefits. You should clearly understand the need for a tool and the support it provides to your employees in ensuring the efficiency of the strategy implementation process.

There are numerous tools out there that have been rendered redundant and simply unnecessary. An ERP for instance, is a tool that can eliminate the need to rely significantly on software only. A comprehensive ERP is the most effective tool in reducing pressure among your employees while accelerating the process of strategy implementation.

Strategy Implementation Steps

It’s preferable that you draw a well-planned list of tasks to be done during the strategy implementation process. Having known the most important factors to be considered, let’s now see the steps involved in strategy implementation.

1. Analysis

After formulating the plan, the next step is to assign specific tasks to each and every employee of your company. But before you do that, be sure to analyse the plan again and see if there’s need to improve it or not.

The three main things to ensure at this stage include:

1. Finding out any loopholes in the plan and if all individual objectives are geared towards implementing the company’s strategy.
2. Ensuring you have adequate budget to support and drive your organisation towards achieving the objective.
3. Ensuring all employees have clear understanding of what is expected of them.

2. Finalisation

Here, you will be required to create a basis for the strategy implementation process. The following are a few things to consider in this step.

1. Draw a roadmap for procedures involving individual and department-specific task implementation.
2. Communicate with managers at all levels regarding department-specific tasks and responsibilities.
3. Assign the tasks to respective employees in each and every department.
4. Ensure all employees clearly understand the goals and what it will take to achieve them.

3. Management and Monitoring

Strategy implementation is one process that requires close monitoring. You should always ensure the process works effectively.

1. Create an employee performance tracking system. This also involves designing a proper metric to assess the performance of each employee. Closely monitor the performance of your employees and ensure everything is moving in accordance to the roadmap created.
2. Develop a reward-based performance management system for all your employees. This works well to motivate them and fast-track the process of achieving your strategies.
3. Ensure your employees have easy access to their supervisors whenever they face a challenge in understanding any bit of the process or need help getting a job completed.

4. Delivery

Once you have set everything in its proper place, you are ready to start the process of implementing your strategies. Below are the day-to-day tasks you should perform.

1. Keep supervising, motivating, and driving your employees towards achieving company objectives.
2. Continue to evaluate department-specific and employee-specific performance.
3. If need be, amend your plan as you move forward in order to get better results.

Why Most Businesses Fail To Launch

Despite following all the necessary steps in implementing strategies and ensuring all key factors are considered, many company strategies simply don’t get anywhere.

So, why do most organisations fail to successfully implement their strategies? Well, according to business insider, there are 12 main reasons why a strategy can fail. This are listed below.

• Overwhelming Strategic Plan & Unrealistic Goals – A complex strategic plan can reduce the chances of attaining your company goals. When unrealistic objectives are set, chances of success are slim.
• Lack of Leadership & Inadequate Monitoring – To get the best results out of employees, good leadership is paramount. Poor leadership or the lack of it from supervisors and managers can lead to failure of strategic plans. It’s therefore important for managers or leaders to clearly understand their roles, assign tasks appropriately to employees and monitor the performance of employees.
• Unclear Accountability – Employees should clearly understand their roles and responsibilities. Any work atmosphere without accountability only leads to strategy failure.
• Lack of Motivation – Of course, the task of motivating all employees to work hard towards achieving a specific goal is a no walk in the park. It’s the duty of managers and supervisors to ensure their employees are well-motivated and performing as expected.
• Lack of Communication – Lack of communication amongst employees, their supervisors and departments can spell disaster for a company. This highly contributes to the failure in strategy implementation.

Summary:

Having an effective strategy enhances your chances of ultimately achieving success in the long-run. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that success cannot be achieved without working hard and smart to implement your strategy.

The strategy implementation process is a long and daunting one from a human point of view. In order to stay on course, in the longer term, there are several things you need to consider which are already covered in this article. If you wish to take some pressure off your teams and make your strategy implementation process easy and organized, you can consider trying an ERP.