“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of people” - W. B. Yeats.
Once strategy is defined, the implementation is done in the following most successful and widely used overlapping and iterative phases and steps;
- Communication
- Plans
- Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
- Tracking and monitoring
Communication
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of people”- William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, 1865- 1936.
Clear communication of organization’s objectives is at the heart of implementation cycle in any type of organization. Ensuring these objectives and goals are not only communicated clearly but are understood at all levels within organization is one of most critical and important task in any strategic initiative throughout the implementation cycle that ultimately becomes driver for change process in general and provide foundation for business planning and growth in particular. 50 priorities- no priorities.
Plans
Emerging business models, technology enablement, and innovative delivery platforms (to deliver goods and services) are making today’s businesses more and more complex. For example this innovation, technology enablement through software application and new business model made it possible for ‘Uber’ the biggest taxi-service-provider globally, (who initially never owned a single taxi) grow exponentially, challenging traditional service providers in this vertical in each country.
Similarly with the fast paced-technology companies grow exponentially and may achieve results in short span of time for which traditional businesses used to struggle for decades. Another example of new business model is cloud delivery platforms and online marketplaces that act as virtual marketplaces generating billions of dollars without having any store or shop physically present anywhere like Alibaba - a Chinese multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, and technology.
As a result business models like business to business (B2B), business to consumers (B2C), business to business to businesses or consumers (B2B2B/C) and business to government, citizens etc. has emerged creating more complex models like B2B2x where ‘x’ may represent individuals, citizens, governments, consumers, viewers or even patients and students etc. This dynamic and agile landscape is challenging traditional ways of doing business and developing new business models that require completely new approach of planning and form of processes and procedures at strategic, functional and operational level of organizations.
Criteria or KPI’s
Traditionally financial performance and growth was given highest importance in evaluation of organizations, teams and even employees. Functional units and teams in the organizations were divided into ‘profit centers’ vs ‘cost centers’.
Verweire, K., & Berghe, L. Van den rightly indicated that besides other drawbacks associated with accounting measures of performance (like Return on equity, Earnings per share, Pay-out ratio and Cash flow) “merely reflect the firm’s past performance, which is not always useful to monitor and guide future performance”. (p. 21)
David P. Norton (American business theorist) and Robert Samuel Kaplan (Emeritus Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School) created ‘Balanced Scorecard’ to establish linkage between actions of company with its long term objective.
Tracking & Monitoring
Organization’s efficiency and effectiveness of operation cannot be achieved without basic tracking and measuring methods.
Contemporary methods like performance reviews, peer appraisals and pulse surveys, are proven business practices used across different industries and businesses which result in high-morale environments internally and periodic customer satisfaction surveys, customer feedback and corrective actions measures against customer complaints create positive image of company externally.