Recently Motorola CEO, Ed Zander, commented on the challenges of building and executing to their strategy: “Today, this is about execution in the mobile-device area. It’s been more challenging to figure out the strategy than we initially thought.” I previously shared my observations on Motorola, specifically their single-minded focus on strategy and innovation. So, this blog is devoted to reminding us of the challenges surrounding successful execution of strategy.

The word strategy originates from the efforts of military leaders as they utilized their troops based on their own as well as their enemy’s resources and capabilities, examination of the external forces including the terrain, weather and the likelihood of uncertain events and developments, in order to triumph in combat. In the world of business, the battle is the effective utilization of a firm’s scarce resources to bring in profits in the face of fierce competition. This requires good understanding of the needs and wants of the potential customers, and the ability differentiate oneself so that customers would choose you over your competitors.

As strategy is a long term plan of action to achieve a particular goal and objective, it requires execution with fluidity, especially in the presence of uncertainty. Effective execution is a competitive business advantage: better execution = better performance. Creating a strategy is easy, but implementing it successfully is where the challenge lies.

The following are my personal experiences and challenges that I have encountered in building and implementing strategies successfully. Reviewing this against your current strategy and its implementation, and devising action plans to avoid these common pitfalls will help improve your chances of a successful outcome.

Strategy is about making tough choices and defining trade-offs; it is about what you are going to do, but more importantly what you are NOT going to do. This requires strong leadership, as successful strategy is about being different regardless off all the nay-sayers inside and outside of your firm. Unfortunately, on too many occasions a firm chooses to keep its options open, and provides an environment that enable its people to ignore the firm’s strategy. However, when things go wrong, the end result will be wasted effort, a disappointed and cynical workforce, and not to forget the loss of credibility of the leaders.

Many aspects of a firm’s strategy can be copied by its rivals, as in the case of fast followers. It’s incredibly arrogant for a company to believe that it can do what its rivals do, and do it better and longer. How well a firm can execute its strategy is determined by its assets and the core competencies. At the same time, immediate availability of market research and competitive intelligence data, continuos changes in customer buying habits, government regulations, convergence of technologies and globalization are making what once was a clear differentiation of the firm’s competencies a temporary competitive advantage.

Strategy is about the basic value you are delivering to your customers: who, what, and how. With this, strategy must have continuity; it can’t be constantly reinvented. Without continuity, your organization will be confused, and your customers won’t know what you stand for. At the same time, strategy formulation and implementation is an on-going process requiring continuous reassessment in the face of ever-changing marketplace and customer demands. Strategy will not need to change often, but will require periodic adjustments based on external circumstances. With that, it is important to keep your strategy flexible, and give your people the freedom and empowerment to respond and adjust as needed.

Strategy and its execution requires ownership at all levels, from the CEO on down. Executive leadership must embed strategy in the organization: from its people, to its processes, to its culture and values. Any strategy, however brilliant, will fail unless people are emotionally committed to its success. In order to achieve unwavering commitment, people need to be involved in the strategy process early, they need to understand and believe in the strategy, and they need to feel included. The organization’s culture, values, incentives, people, structure and processes all contribute to how the existing internal environment will support its strategy. Through establishment of performance targets and incentives, it is important to direct the existing behavior and culture. After all, what gets measured gets done.

Execution is a process, not an action or a step, and it requires time. Though strategy might be built by few, execution requires everyone. With that, it is about change and management of that change. If change is not managed effectively, it will generate internal resistance. Though speed of execution is important, you need a cohesive approach to communicate, align, motivate, focus and enable people to execute the strategy: self-supporting environment that will follow through even where the organizational structure and processes fails.

Strategy must be attainable. The executive management team needs to assure that the organization’s objectives, performance targets, and strategically critical business processes are all in alignment with its strategy: horizontally and vertically across the various departments. Each of the strategic initiatives identified needs to be budgeted and managed. Most importantly, there needs to be recognition of both the existing competencies and the required competencies for success, and a plan to bridge the knowledge-doing gap. Establishing tangible and practical steps, along with key milestones, will help achieve early victories that will generate momentum and excitement for the whole organization.

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