HOWEVER BEAUTIFUL the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. So once said Winston Churchill, British statesman, author and Prime Minister duringWorldWar II.
Churchill knew exactly what he was talking about. His sharp witticism hinted at a bitter truth: any strategy, no matter how ingenious and clever, was not worth its salt if it didn¡¯t yield the intended results. This is a fact that many modern companies are ruefully finding out – to their own peril. A research conducted by Bridges Business Consultancy, a business consultancy specialising in implementing strategy launched by Robin Speculand, found out that 9 out of 10 companies fail to successfully implement their strategy to achieve the desired results. Speculand is a specialist in the implementation of strategies in organisations, a comparatively new field that has increasingly attracted the attention of corporates and companies in the last five years. Speculand founded Bridges Business Consultancy in Singapore, where he has lived for the past 15 years.
A graduate from the Asia Pacific MBA at the National University of Singapore and Manchester University in England, he has worked with management teams from New Zealand to NewYork, Latin America to the United Kingdom and Africa, China to the Middle East. He is also the founder and president of BRIM – Business Roundtable for Innovative Management, (a Singapore based think tank), a founding member of Asia Speakers Association and a Singapore Quality Class Internal Assessor.
He is also the author of ¡®Turning It On – surefire business stories to ignite, excite and entertain¡¯ and the bestseller ¡®Bricks to Bridges – make your strategy come alive.¡¯ Robin Speculand was in Dubai recently to conduct his one-day signature seminar, ¡®Make your strategy come alive.¡¯ The event, at Movenpick Hotel in Bur Dubai, was organised by The Right Selection Group, a Dubai-based organisation that introduces training and development initiatives to companies in the Gulf region that are committed to promoting a learning culture within their organisations. Originally from Scotland, Speculand spoke to City Times in this interview about the new field of strategy implementation.
Why is strategy important in business? .
Strategy has always been important in business. But the real question is: once you have your strategy, what do you do next? All leaders know it¡¯s important to have the right strategy. But strategy is not worth the paper it¡¯s written on if you cannot implement it. If you make promises to your staff, customers and shareholders, then you have to deliver on those promises. And this is where we come in. Strategy implementation is now becoming a field in its own right, where we put the emphasis on implementing the strategy.
What has your research revealed about business strategies?
We found out that organisations use many different means to create strategies. When CEOs get the strategy they think about what they need to do next. And from experience they know that a lot of times the strategy has not achieved the results. In fact, from the research that we have done we discovered that 9 out of 10 strategies fail to be implemented successfully. And this is a horrific failure, which has gone unnoticed for too long. And subconsciously a lot of leaders know that the challenge of implementation is tough.
According to you, what sort of mistakes do organisations make vis-¨¤-vis strategy implementation?
Organisations make a lot of mistakes.We discovered this from seven years of research from the Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets. One of the main issues is: many leaders underestimate the whole challenge of implementation. They think the challenge is to craft the strategy.
Once crafted, they then think they have done the hardest part of the job. But no. Implementation is twice as difficult as crafting. That is because once you craft the strategy, you must take it to the whole organisation, and not only must you get everybody on board but you must also get them to take the right actions. It¡¯s like running a marathon. It takes a long time and a lot of discipline. Most organisations start off with fanfare and trumpets blowing but they underestimate how much work it¡¯s going to take once they get going.
So does that also mean that most organisations don¡¯t have the foresight or wisdom to realise that strategy implementation is real hard work?
Absolutely. What typically happens is, once they finish crafting a strategy, they probably do a multi-media presentation, maybe the CEO gives a speech, some posters are passed around the room, maybe some staff are sent on training etc. But there is no structured approach about how to implement strategy.
In fact, what¡¯s missing today is a framework.We have plenty of framework for crafting strategy but few for implementing it. Now what we have done in Bridges is we have not only studied the failures but also the successes. And we¡¯ve learnt from the results of our research and from our own experience with clients what it took to succeed.We discovered that there are eight best practices – areas that companies need to focus on.We put these together in the formof a framework that we call the Implementation Compass.
So briefly,what are these eight best practices?
They start off with the people who do the work. It¡¯s the people on the ground dealing with customers, answering phones, doing the transactions etc. who make the strategy come alive. So the first is how to address and work with people. The second area is the business case, which is creating a sense of urgency as to why we should start to implement a strategy. The third area is communication, not just initially communicating the strategy but constantly updating people about what¡¯s working, what¡¯s not working, what¡¯s the feedback from customers, what¡¯s coming in the future, what to do differently etc. A continuous on-going communication.
The fourth area is the measurement. When you change your strategy you must also change your measurements, otherwise you are measuring the old strategy. And as we know, ¡®what gets measured gets done.¡¯ The fifth area is the culture of the organisation. The strategy drives the culture but the culture would drive the implementation. So you have to find the right tempo of implantation that fits your company¡¯s culture which would encourage people to participate. The sixth area is the processes – the way you are working everyday.
You have to make sure that your processes support the strategy and do not hinder it. The seventh area is the reinforcements, which is rewards and recognition. This ensures that when somebody demonstrates the behaviour and actions of the new strategy that they are rewarded and recognised accordingly. And the final area is review. You have to keep reviewing what you said you were going to do as you¡¯re doing it. A strategy has to be broken down in small components and reviewed every two weeks, which is a major shift in most people¡¯s thinking. And once a quarter you review the whole strategy.We found that companies that implemented strategies successfully focused on all the eight best practices at the same time, though maybe in different degrees.
So does that mean that business leaders need to change themselves?
Yes. Our research shows that most leaders need to change the way they think about the implementation. And one of the major things they have to start thinking about is that it¡¯s just as important to implement the strategy as to come up with the right strategy. In fact, a study done in Newcastle in UK has shown that it¡¯s more important to be able to implement a strategy in your company than to have the right strategy. In other words, you can have a bad strategy but if it¡¯s implemented properly it can give results, and vice-versa.
From your experience, what are the most difficult parts, in terms of implementation, that company leaders struggle with?
Like I said, most leaders get confused about how to implement. They have nothing to guide them. That¡¯s why we have put in the framework. The other thing that most leaders struggle with is that it can take many years for implementation to be successful. In some companies, it can take up to two to three years. So you have to have the discipline to stay the course and to follow through, checking on strategy, making sure it¡¯s working and giving what you want. And it takes a lot of commitment from the leadership team. And most leaders underestimate that.
In implementation, how should leaders deal with people in their companies who resist change or who are whiners and grumblers who might hinder or slow down implementation of strategy?
Interestingly, we discovered that people respond to implementation in three key ways. One group of people will resist you. This group is about 20 per cent of your working population. The second group of people are those who shrug and go along.
This group forms about 60 per cent. And the third group, of about 20 per cent, is the enthusiastic one. So, the big surprise is: most people don¡¯t resist change, in implementation of strategy. 60 per cent go along and 20 per cent will support you, so you have about 80 per cent of the company moving in a direction you want them to. So, it¡¯s critical that you identify the positive people and make sure you focus on those who will give you quick wins and early successes. You should know who the different people are and how to address and work with the different groups.
What is your experience in coaching companies about implementation in Dubai? Is there anything different about Dubai in this respect?
I¡¯ve been working with companies in the Gulf region for the last six years. Of course there are many similarities. But what we¡¯ve noticed about Dubai is that the pace of implementation is different. In Dubai there is much more urgency to get things done sooner and quicker. ¡ö
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