EXECUTION EXCELLENCE THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY..

Any strategy is as good as its execution..

Chanakya & Chandragupta, Krishna and Arjuna,  Timmarasu and Srikrishna Devaraya are firmly engrained in our minds as a great combination for effective strategy and exceptional execution ability.

                                    

How beautiful and longlasting  is the thought of ‘TajMahal’ in the minds of Shahjahan if it was not translated into a historic and everlasting monument through phenomenal execution?!

Any idea which has not met with execution excellence is as good as a piece of Plain Paper..

While actions taken without a clear strategy could lead to lot of chaos, and strategy which is backed by strong execution on the ground is what that leads to growth, profitability and a long lasting success.

A  study of over 750 global CEOs across the globe on the top 10 challenges faced by organisations  identified excellence of execution as their top challenge and keeping consistent execution of strategy by top management as their third greatest concern.

 Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 'The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage' highlighted that the ability for a company to translate its strategies into action and deliver to their customers provides a significant advantage.

  We have organizations spending lot of their resources in developing fantastic strategies for short term, medium and long term. Most of the time they take the help of high profile global consultants for these activities.Despite this, most of the time, the results are anything but spectacular.

This is because the strategies are prepared by executives who are entrenched firmly on their desks or boardrooms who come out with a series of steps to convert the wish list of the organization into a reality without much focus on the implement-ability and practicality. They also lack an understanding of the ground level situation matched with their organizational capabilities’

While a lot of emphasis in management education is on learning about strategic frameworks, theories and models, very little emphasis is shown on learning the nitty-gritty of execution and the importance of execution excellence in organizational success. This is because of a variety of factors like lack of time, organizational experience, exposure to real life situations with all their dynamic interactions. Ability to dirty their hand by getting quickly into the middle of the things in any given situation and willingness to lead from the front in any given situation are the hall mark of leaders with ability to excel in execution.

The following must be taken into account while coming out with executable strategies that can add real values to organization:

A firm understanding on the ground reality is a must for development of an implementable strategy. While the steps that lead to the eventual scenario that has been mapped have to be clearly laid out, a step by step clear action plan should be laid out that is simple to understand and is also implementable given the organizational competencies and resource availability.

The challenge of execution is mostly a matter of synchronization -- getting the right product to the right customer at the right time.  A regional manufacturing initiative in Africa  may involve reconfiguring 54 different supply chains and understanding the markets of 54 different countries.

A classic case of non-synchronization leading to a grand failure is that of the takeover of  Deccan Airways with Kingfisher airlines.  Kingfisher Airlines which was the most desirable airlines to travel for the airline consumers with a premium image wanted to expand its target customer base, it acquired Deccan Airways a low cost airlines offering base and stripped down services to the consumers. The entire operation, the way it was managed  not only ended up leading to lot of confusion in the minds of the consumers about the brand values of Kingfisher,  but also led to enormous losses for the company leading to complete washout of the value associated with the acquisition to the company.

In the airlines business, Spicejet, Indigo airlines are classic examples of excellent execution of the strategy of Low cost Airlines.

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   An effective execution will start with a good strategy and will involve the following steps:

A)     Strategy that is executable with a strong sense of on ground situation

B)     Strong leadership, delegation and involvement of competent persons with requisite skills.

C)     Continuous communication across the duration of the implementation. A number of times, the strategies  fail because of lack of communication of the strategy across various levels of the organization. A infectious enthusiasm whipped up by successful communication could lead to the entire organization resonating with a single purpose to go for the success and lead to execution excellence.

D)     Clear measures for managing the progress of the implementation accurately. Anything that can be measured can be monitored.  Hence an understanding of the metrics is a must.

E)      Co-ordination and synchronization across various elements of the organization till the results are achieved.

Successful organizations know the importance of ‘Execution Excellence’ and have this aspect ingrained well into their fabric. This also will be an important aspect of evaluation of all executives.

      Any one is an effective ‘Executive’ or a part of the ‘Executive Management’ only if he has              ‘Execution Excellence’ as his/her must possess traits.

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