IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGY

Implementation is usually thought of as something you do at the end of the strategic planning process. Okay, now we have this strategic plan; let's do it. If you think about what has been discussed in this publication, it becomes apparent that you will be considering the practical problems of implementation throughout the planning process. Frequently, a suggested alternative will be rejected because it would be difficult to implement. Or a preferred approach to marketing or production would be beyond the financial means of you or your investors.

The two primary issues that need to be considered in the final implementation process are communication and scheduling. Successfully implementing a plan depends on effective communication. Employee resistance often can be reduced, if not eliminated, if plans are openly presented and concerns are dealt with up front. In addition, to carry out new policies and procedures effectively, employees need to have a clear understanding of what is happening and what is expected of them. Better informed employees are more likely to do as you instruct them, thereby reducing the need for complex and costly control systems.

One key element in effective communication is involving your employees -- those who must carry out the plan -- as much as possible in the actual planning process. People who are involved in planning will have a solid grasp of the plan and their part in it when it is implemented. If employees are genuinely involved in the process, they are more likely to accept the result as a plan they helped develop. This result is often referred to as ownership.

Successful implementation also depends on a realistic schedule for the transition. It is too easy to assume away the difficulties of a major change and to anticipate that everything will be on track and running smoothly. How many times have you seen a news report about schedule and cost overruns on a government project? This kind of error can be disastrous if you are working within tight margins that can be quickly eradicated when costs and sales don't reach expectations on time. Realistic schedules require that you factor in training time, periods of low productivity, increased error rates and slowdowns as you correct organizational oversights. Schedules also should include planned checkpoints for carefully assessing progress toward full implementation.

Every business needs to develop systems for measuring and controlling progress toward strategic goals; no matter how loyal your employees or how strong the camaraderie, individual and organizational goals are not always the same. Three features distinguish effective control systems from ineffective systems.

• Standards -- These are your specific operative goals. The need to carefully set clear and measurable goals was emphasized earlier. (The processes of planning and controlling are most closely related for this reason.) Cautiously interpret how well your business performs relative to your goals. It is too easy to assume that, if you are not meeting your goals, the business simply is falling short. You also must reassess your original goals. Are the goals reasonable? Is it possible that you overestimated the firm's capabilities? Has something changed in the environment -- a new law, a new competitor, an economic downturn -- that has completely changed the playing field? If, for whatever reason, your goals are now too high, your employees, if forced to continue to pursue them, will become exasperated rather than motivated.
• Measurement -- Control systems must include quantifiable measures for monitoring performance. The lack of effective measurement systems is where control systems often fail. If you can set performance standards for profits and units produced, if you can tie standards directly to the goals of the plan, then building an effective measurement system is less difficult. Unfortunately, there are many tasks, particularly in management, that are difficult to assess. The output of these tasks, while critical to the overall success of the plan, is not usually measurable in clear units. Payoffs often only come after a long interval.
• Corrective measures -- Corrective actions must be carefully directed at the cause of discrepancies between planned and actual results, and the cause of problems is often very difficult to identify. It is fairly easy, for example, to blame an individual worker for goal failures. However, in complex business systems, where labor and sophisticated technology interact, production systems require careful coordination by managers who must deal with vast amounts of information. In the modern business world, it is becoming harder to identify the source of problems with one agent.

In setting up an effective control system, you need to make five key design decisions:

• Will you use behavior or output controls? As noted earlier, output controls are easier to develop if they can be directly related to the goal. Unfortunately, for many jobs, output controls don't make sense because of the indirect link between day-to-day work and long-term output.
• Do you have adequate means of measuring progress? Frequently, it is wise to use multiple measures of job and organization performance. Too many standards, however, can become cumbersome and costly.
• Have you properly focused your controls? As noted earlier, interdependencies between various tasks, technologies and phases of the production system can be quite significant. If your target of control is too narrow (e.g., The guy just isn't willing to make a reasonable effort.), you may be missing a more complex situation and find that your remedies don't really work.
• Have you determined proper intervals between assessments? You need to find a happy medium in this area. It might seem ideal to continually monitor fulfillment of the plan -- and information technologies do, in fact, enable you to do this in some situations. The cost of frequent measurements can, nevertheless, become prohibitive.
• Should you reward or punish to correct discrepancies? Both of these usually are used. However, overuse of punishment can lead to negative feelings and, eventually, failure to meet goals. Additionally, negative controls -- punishment systems -- require much more time to administer. This is because you constantly need to watch for deviations from desired behaviors if you are to catch and effectively punish offenders. A reward system, on the other hand, links appropriate actions to rewards, increasing the likelihood that you will observe positive contributions without the need for careful or frequent monitoring of day-to-day activities.

As you can see, control, like implementation, cannot be treated as an afterthought if you are to be successful in whatever strategy you choose. The standards are determined early in the strategic planning process as you set clear operative goals.Effective measurement and correction systems are crucial if you hope to encourage consistent performance that will lead to the realization of your strategic goals.