Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change, Second Edition

Chapter 2. Overview and Model: Making Strategy Work

Introduction

Chapter 1 emphasized the fact that strategy execution is extremely difficult. It also argued that most managers know much more about planning or strategy making than about “doing” or making strategy work.

There are many obstacles to execution that, taken together, present a formidable challenge and contribute to poor execution, as the preceding chapter indicated. One of these is that managers often suffer from not having a conceptual framework or a model to guide execution efforts.

The lack of a model, blueprint, or template to shape execution decisions or actions is a major obstacle to making strategy work. Managers need a roadmap to guide execution. “Tell us what to do, when, ...