While strategies are usually defined in the boardrooms of large organizations, significant gaps emerge in implementing these strategies at the operational or the proverbial “ground” level. Initiatives derived from these strategies frequently do not see the light of day and the organization is back to square one . . .or even worse, on the eve of the next “yearly” strategy formulation session. Why does this happen? Let us examine a few reasons which will sound familiar:

1. The linkage between the initiatives and the organizational goal of improved financial performance is either not robust or is so indirect or complex that there is little shared understanding and therefore buy in among the middle and junior executives, who are responsible for the implementation.
2.  The initiatives are not clearly defined – who, what, when and how. Consequently, there is sometimes shared responsibility across departments, but no single entity that is clearly accountable for the implementation and the results.
3. Balanced scorecards used to allocate these initiatives often encourage multiple initiatives and local optimization for each department or function. The Inevitable result is bad-multi-tasking with the same set of people taking up a number of initiatives all at the same time and then crisis fighting among them.
4. There is no structured mechanism to monitor the progress of these initiatives. As a consequence, student’s syndrome, (last minute efforts) are prevalent, leading to sub-standard quality and incomplete scope of each initiative.

In this article, I propose that each strategic initiative be treated as a time bound project. While many readers of this article may argue that is exactly what is done in their organizations, I beg to differ. This is actually a myth. Project management needs a very specific and disciplined approach which is lacking in almost all strategy implementation efforts today. A dip stick research conducted by us across more than 50 medium and large organizations revealed that less than 15% of them have any kind of structured project plan in place for the initiatives embarked upon.

Resources required are not firmed up. Accountabilities are not identified. There are no clear “owners” and measurement either in terms of progress or impact on bottom line or top line is non-existent in the medium term. Milestones and decision gates are not transparent. The rationale for the initiative in terms of linkage with the organization goal of making more and more money is not obvious to the implementers. Finally, there is really no regular, frequent, periodic monitoring that progresses the initiative and facilitates removal of obstacles.

Just take the example of the New Product Development: function of most organizations and one can easily see what I mean.

Do they know what the impact of their initiative is in monetary terms (even within a wide range, given the uncertainty of introducing a new/modified product in the market)? Do they know how to prioritize among the numerous new product opportunities on the table? What is the time line committed and what is their past history of completion in time? Are there specific gates and events when key decisions have to be taken on continuing, discontinuing or course correction of an initiative? How are they incentivized to complete their initiatives in/before time? Is there a structured mechanism to monitor the progress of each initiative and to provide early warning signals in case of anticipated delays?

I propose below an overview of a step by step approach that can significantly improve the chances of successful initiative implementation in organizations:

I. Step 1: Project definition – determine the following clearly

• The Why? How will this initiative contribute to the current Throughput improvement, Inventory reduction or Fixed expense control/reduction for the organization. By how much (an intelligent range is admissible).