After 20 years in international executive positions, I have now spent 2 years supporting different businesses succeed in their strategy execution. Here briefly some of my learnings and observations.

When creating strategies extensive efforts are made and best expertise used. The strategic formulation and target setting are typically done by a small group of people. Execution on the other hand requires true commitment from complete management teams and key people across the organisation. That in itself should underline the benefit of putting as much, if not even more, emphasis upon excellence in execution as was done for creating the winning strategy. But is this usually the case?

Even if there is no doubt that strategy execution mostly is well planned and carried out there is always room for improvement. Research actually indicates that the vast majority of strategies and related projects don’t progress with expected pace.

‍My learnings relate to HOW the execution should be put into practice; the importance of reaching a strong common view, the significance of teams making decisions together and the need to have a broad participation to avoid silos. Also, the observation that teams will benefit from an appropriate process combined with facilitation support ensuring the expected outcome.

A professionally managed process will accomplish a strong common view and commitment. It will concretise the needed change, establish execution focus and activity paths across all key functions. A crucial part of such a process is also the recognition of capability and competence requirements. The benefits are evident and most importantly, they will speed up strategy execution.

An additional observation is that this can be accomplished efficiently and a well gathered team typically has all the insights needed.

All this requires is the aspiration to excel in strategy execution.

Curious about your thoughts and happy to share my learnings in more depth.

thomas.enckell@trailmaker.com / +358 40 5038464