Financial and Strategic Management

What are the factors supporting Strategy Implementation?

Strategy Implementation – Supporting Factors

The development and selection of strategies to pursue in an organization are considered easier and less time consuming than implementing these strategies once they have been chosen. Effective implementation of strategy in an organization needs multiple supporting factors. Some of these factors include the following:

(i) Action Planning
Organizations to be successful in strategy implementation need to develop a detailed action plan i.e., chronological lists of action steps (tactics) that add the necessary detail to strategies and assign responsibility to specific individuals or groups for accomplishing those actions. They should also set a due date and estimate the resources required to accomplish each of their action steps. Thus, they translate their broad strategy statement into a number of specific work assignments.

(ii) Organizational Structure
Successful strategists should also give proper thought to their organizational structure and see whether the current structure is appropriate for their intended strategy because different structures suit the implementation of different strategies.

(iii) Human Resource Factors
Human Resource factors through framing strategic plans play a vital role in the successful implementation of strategies in an organization. Strategist realizes that the human resource issue is really a two-part story. The consideration of human resources requires the management to think about the organization’s communication needs. Further, managers successful at implementation are aware of the effects each new strategy will have on their human resource needs.

(iv) Annual Business Plan
Organizations successful at implementation are well aware of their need to fund their intended strategies. They think about necessary financial commitment in the planning process. For firming up their commitments to strategic plans, companies monetize their strategy. That way, they link their strategic plan to their annual business plan.

Developing an effective strategic plan is only half the battle. Getting it implemented is the other half – completing the tactics to accomplish the strategies and objectives within the plan. Monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan is justified on the following grounds:

(i) It helps to assure the organization’s efforts conform to the plan.
(ii) It enables the organization to ensure that the results achieved correspond to our quantified objectives.
(iii) Further monitoring allows for corrective action.
(iv) Since monitoring is part of the control process, it encourages improved performance.
(v) Monitoring provides the essential link between the written plan and the day-to-day operation of the business.

It demonstrates to all that organization is really managing the business according to its strategic plan.

To set functional area goals, the following steps should be taken:
1. For each functional area, compare present functional goals with new enterprise, corporate, and business level goals.
2. Decide what new goal areas (functional variables) are needed for each function.
3. Set new goal levels (values for each functional area’s variables).

 

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Shreya Kushwaha

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