strategy implementation survey results 2012

Bridges Business Consultancy Int Pte Ltd ©

Bridges Business Consultancy Int

Pte Ltd

Strategy Implementation

Survey Findings

2012


Introduction Ten years ago Bridges Business Consultancy Int Pte Ltd published its first research into the field of strategy implementation. Our most astounding statistic was that nine out of 10 implementations fail to be implemented successfully. This figure which was extracted by looking at the strategy goals and then measuring who achieved a minimum of 50% of the goals in the time allocated. In 2005 our first few years research, along with our client experience, contributed to our international best seller, Bricks to Bridges – Make Your Strategy Come Alive. We now bring you our 10th year of research with some startling responses. It has involved online responses for the first time as well as over 130 interviews. The majority of organizations have over 10,000 employees and their headquarters are predominantly in the US and Singapore. 62% of the companies were Multi Nationals (MNCs), 21% were from the Public Sector and 17% were local companies. The main industry this year was from IT followed by Financial Institutions, Government and Pharmaceutical. The main participants in the survey were middle and senior managers with a handful of supervisors.


Executive Summary The pressure on companies over the last few years has forced many to revisit their strategy and vision. This is resoundingly supported in that almost all the companies interviewed were developing a new strategy or vision, mission and values or both. 80% of leaders feel their company is good at crafting strategy but only 44% at its implementation and only 2% are confident that they will achieve 80-100% of their strategy’s objectives. Most leaders allocate more time to implementing strategy than creating it and an overwhelming number believe that their bonus should be linked to the successful implementation of the strategy. 70% of leaders spend less than one-day a month reviewing strategy. We asked this question this year for the first time and the result is disappointing (but not surprising) as we hoped it would be higher. Leaders believe that only 5% of employees have a basic understanding of the company strategy which again is disappointing but consistent with other organization’s research. It is encouraging that almost two-thirds of the companies link their budget to the strategy.


Executive Summary (Cont’d) The top three toughest implementation challenges leaders perceive are: 1. ensuring staff members take different actions or demonstrate different actions 2. aligning implementation to the company’s culture 3. gaining people’s support Aligning implementation to the company’s culture is a surprise as the second highest challenge as it was not previously a top concern among leaders in our research. Middle management continue to be the biggest area or resistance compared to staff members and leaders.


Strategy Implementation

Survey Findings

2012


1. Please tick the initiatives your organization has been engaged in, in last two years. You can tick more than one

box.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

The majority of companies who participated in the survey are developing a new strategy and/or Vision, Mission and Values. The Balanced Scorecard continues to be a popular management tool but quality initiatives have dramatically reduced since we started the survey 10 years ago and customer service is less of a focus this year.

Others included:

• Patient Safety and Quality

• Virtualisation of existing

services.

• Information Security

System

• Sales and customer

support

• Market Intelligence


2. How do you define strategy?

• An action plan for the future. • A road map for success, a plan for the future resulting in success. • A systematic method, approach to achieve the mission and goals set out. • Choices made now that should lead the organization towards its vision and fulfil its mission. • Plan to bridge between desired future state and a current non-ideal state. • As a vehicle to execute on vision, values, mission. • Having a clear view of outcome being sought with a roadmap to successful implementation/adaption. • A clearly particulate and how we are going to get there in key focus areas. • An action/direction embraced by corporation to position it in a stronger to meet its mission, vision or values.

As there is no globally agreed definition of strategy and we took the opportunity to ask leaders their definition. We received almost a different definition for every survey and the most popular response by far was explaining it as a plan of action for the future of the organization.


3. How do you define strategy implementation?

• Action to achieve the strategy. • How an action plan is drawn out. • Plan to achieve our objective. • Communicating and getting by on the strategic plans and objectives, measuring outcomes and adjusting accordingly. • Strategy translated into action. • It is the use of tools and methods (actions) to achieve goals set. Example: balanced scorecard. • To make/work out the planned plan. • Action to drive initiatives. • To put into right action. • Action to move towards future state according to plan. • The defined steps and measurements of the roll out of strategy.

Similar to the previous question we also asked for a definition of strategy implementation and we received various responses. The majority were around actions to achieve the strategy.


4. Do you think your company is good at developing

strategy?

80%

20%

Yes

No

There is a disparity between leaders believe that there company is good at developing strategy and its ability to execute the strategy. Only half the leaders who believe their company can craft a good strategy have confidence in the execution.

5. Do you believe your company is good at

implementing strategy?

44%

56%

Yes

No


6. Do you believe that implementing a strategy requires

more time than crafting strategy?

98%

2%

Yes

No

7. In your experience, approximately what

percentages of a strategy's objectives that are set

at the start are successfully met on completion of

the execution?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Less than 20%

20-39%

40-59%

60-79%

80-100%

Almost all those interviewed believe implementation requires more time than it take to create a good strategy and shockingly only 2% of leaders are confident that they will achieve 80-100% of their strategy’s objectives.


8. How much time does your leadership team spend a

month discussing strategy (as against operations) in

leadership meetings?

0 20 40 60 80

Less than one hour a month

Less than one day a month

2-3 days a month

4-6 days a month

Between one to two weeks

More than two weeks

9. Do you believe a leaders' bonus should be linked to

the successful implementation of the strategy?

96%

4%

Yes

No

70% of leaders spend less than one-day a month reviewing strategy and an overwhelming number believe that their bonus should be linked to the successful implementation of the strategy.


10. What percentage of the work force do you feel

have at least a basic understanding of the company strategy and can explain it?

0 20 40 60 80

Less than 20%

20-39%

40-59%

60-79%

80-100%

Leaders believe that only 5% of employees have a basic understanding of the company strategy. Most of the time the CEO stays involved in the implementation after it is crafted.

11. To what extent does your CEO stay involved in implementing strategy after it is crafted?

0 10 20 30 40 50

Less than 20%

20-39%

40-59%

60-79%

80-100%


12. Please rank the list below the top three toughest implementation challenge with 1, 2 and 3.

0 10 20 30 40 50

Ensuring staff members take different actions or desmonstrate different behaviors

Communicating change

Implementing process changes

Support of senior management

Acquiring customer feedback

Changing rewards & recognition

Measuring implementation

Gaining peoples' support across the whole organization

Aligning the implementation to your company's culture

Rank 3

Rank 2

Rank 1

The top three toughest implementation challenges leaders perceive are (1) ensuring staff members take different actions or demonstrate different actions (2) aligning implementation to the company’s culture and (3) gaining people’s support.


13. From question 12 please explain why you have selected the number 1 item as the toughest challenge for

implementing strategy.

Verbatim comments:

• Putting into action and getting support to support strategy. • People working in the organization is often the greatest obstacle, and yet the most important resource necessary, to make the strategy "happen". • If the staff thinks the current processes/actions behaviours are good they won't want to change to different ones. • As the organization is huge, the communications role needs to be tightened. People don't want to change. • Need to reach out to large no. of staff who may be too far remote to understand these "highbrow" corporate strategies. • Company has many different types of experts. • Without management support, nothing move.


14. Where do you feel the greatest resistance

come from in an organization to a strategy's execution?

12%

56%

32%

Top Management Middle Managers Front-line

Middle Management is the highest resistor to executing the strategy and almost two-thirds of companies link the budget to the strategy.

15. Do you craft the strategy and link the annual budget to it or vice versa?

64%

36% Craft the strategy and then link the annual budget to it

Set the budget with little or no reference to the strategy


16. How many people are there in your organization?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Less than 10

11 to 50

51 to 300

301 to 500

501 to 1000

1001 to 5000

5001 to 10,000

More than 10,000

17. Which category does your organization belong to?

Multi-National Corporation

(MNC) 62%

Public Sector 21%

Local 17%


18. Where is your organization's headquarters?

52 45

9 7 5 5 9

2 1 1 1 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Country

19. Which country are you based in?

43

19 16 15 17 10 7 7

2 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1

Country


20. Which industry sector best describes your organization?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Banking/ Finance

Oil and Gas

IT/ Computing

FMCG

Government/ Ministry

Legal

Manufacturing

Electrical

Retail

Telecommunications

Life Sciences/ Pharmaceutical

Energy and Utilities

Other

Industry Sector

Other *Healthcare - 9 *Agriculture Business - 7 *Insurance - 6 *Defence/Security - 2 *Design Centre *Professional Business Services *Manufacturing *Military *Training


22. How will you best describe your position in the organization?

Others

CEO/ President/ Managing Director

Board Member

Top Management Team

Middle Management Team

Supervisor

0 20 40 60 80 100

Others:

• Director

• General Manager

• Group HR Manager

• Individual Professional

• Consultant

23. What is the annual revenue of your organization? (in US dollars)

11% 5%

10%

20%

54%

Annual Revenue (in USD)

Less than US$500,000

US$500,001 to US$1,000,000

US$1,000,001 to US$5,000,000

US$5,000,001 to US$100,000,000

More than US$100,000,000

For further information please contact: [email protected] or call +6568860123

mailto:[email protected]

strategy implementation survey results 2012

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