Strategy execution dilemma

Business success

The success of any business mainly depends upon it’s strategies on which business is to built its plans
for long-term basis, a successful strategy pave the way to gain competitive advantage in the
environment, which ultimately results in over all business profitability in the foreseeable future,
Micheal Porter, a business management guru categorized business strategies into three types in his
illustrious book competitive strategy namely cost leadership focuses on how a business can cut the cost
of operations?, while concentrating on segmented value creation activities, for example, a big retailer
chain like Macro in Pakistan if persuading cost leadership strategy may not have carpets and elegant
decors in the head office, another strategy namely differentiation strategy emphasis on creating a
unique and different products in the industry like of which we encountered by Apple co IPOD and IPAD
with highly diversified applications, and another strategy is focus strategy focusing on a particular
segment of market, some businesses have gone beyond the notion of equipping with a single strategy,
Singapore airlines have deployed both differentiation and low cost strategies which according to Mr.
Porter is not viable.

In the following article, I am going to explicate why properly designed strategies turn into a fiasco? , in
2001 the speculative dot-com bubble got burst, stock market crashed, as knowledgeable investors and
professionals saw big warnings known as reflags belief that internet business instantaneously takes off
the retail stores was too much optimistic, people tend to think they would be buying all the
commodities online. The problem was that none of this actually occurring because the companies did
not have any realistic business strategy to transform the long established ways of doing business.

The Blame game

When the strategies are failing to cope with the required outcomes, the CEOs and the other corporate
planners tend to shift the blame toward middle level manager failing to formulate strategy on
departmental level, correspondingly, managers may wish to find scapegoat out of operational staff, if
you are to believe in this blame shifting game, you are probably always going to find some reasons to
overcome the failures, a glimpse of such situation is reflected in a statement of former PIA managing
director Tariq Karmani with an attempt to over come due failures, he harshly criticized PIA’s finance
officer : Mr Kermani appointed his friend Usmani in Finance and as admitted by him, he was 
paying to 0.7 million Rs per month to him as he claimed in the Press that PIA Finance Officers were not
ready to cooperate with him by providing him correct financial figures / data on time.

Financially ill highly government subsidized firm like PIA ensures to develop corporate level strategies,
perhaps, the strategists may proclaim those strategies are brilliant, but, even if a brilliant strategy is not
formulated on organizational level, it is futile, a mediocre strategy may ameliorate the adverse effect of
so called brilliant strategy not to be implemented, but rather left on papers in black and white.
We all are sort of doers

Employees, today in organizations are expected to adopt the strategies dictated by top management to
act mechanically; therefore, the big bosses always take the credit if the formulated strategies bring
success to organization, in few industries like BPO call center industry the one I was part of, employees
were given credit for long talk time with customers on-phone and forwarding those complaints to
technical departments, off course there is no defy on one can serve more and more customers by acting
on these guidelines, but few customers may talk beyond the problem they are facing, you as a
CRO(customer relation officer) may be compelled to built social relations with customer for a short while
which most of the BPO call center do not really welcome such initiatives, another example can be found
from portfolio management industry, some clients may just take care about portfolio and profit on the
securities, they would not prone to be socialized but some clients having trusted their business to a
portfolio manager may like to be socialized, the same scenario may exist in retail banking, where
customer is cognizant of the overall interest income on principle amount and they are inclined to be
socialized which is not to be dictated by managers but rather personnel strategies would be bought to
the work, which may not be valued or observed by top managers, such personnel strategies are crucial
for front officers to be executed.

Brilliant strategy

Can a brilliant strategy help an election candidate to win a campaign?, ‘yes; if it is formulated properly,
for a business, to find a brilliant strategy, its manager must seek to understand some general
considerations of its competitive situations, needs of customers in environment, capital markets
positions, new technology, the structure of the industry and the strength and weaknesses of its rivals.

The old strategy execution approach empowers the leaders to dictate set strategies and expect
subordinates to mechanically follow, a novel but progressive model the choice-cascade model, on the
contrary, allow senior managers to empowers workers by allowing them to use their best judgment in
the scenarios?, would this model be helpful for companies in Pakistan where employees are persuade as
unwilling and lethargic by employers and the whole organization structure is rigidly bureaucratic, well, it
depends on how appropriately organization has recruited employees and what kind of response it
requires from its employees in situations where quick decision making would benefit the organization, in
addition, it would also help the top managers to accumulate information on novel situations, could help
to facilitate knowledge management which is not much cognizant practice In Pakistan but could
augment vast amount of information for strategy formulation.

Time to try some thing new ?

Senior managers who just like to win do not bother to ask themselves, what its like if I were on the end
of my employees?, employees are expected to sit there as a choice less doers to be some thing for so
called brilliant strategy of top management. If a company empowers employees to choose their own
response to situation accordingly would turn choice less doers into better prospective managers.
Better execution of strategies is the path of achievement, be it in political campaigns , wars or
businesses, if each employ is expected and trained to become a better executor, it would be promising
for employee to realize self-worth within the organization.

References

http://www.brilliantstrategy.com/

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62141254.html

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Brilliant_strategy_but_can_you_execute_318#

http://www.mba-tutorials.com/strategy/522-market-penetration-strategy.html