Activating Strategies 313 NATURE OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Jue implementation concerns the managerial exercise of Putting a freshly chosen strategy into place.”? fs izategic plan devised by the organisation proposes the manner in which the strategies could be put into 1M yrategies: Dy themselves, do not lead to action. They are, ina sense, a statement of intent: implemen- al ion sks are meant to realise the intent, Strategies, therefore, have to be activated through implementation, we characteristics of strategy implementation listed below, serve to highlight the essential nature of reo implementation. , ; sr hion orientation The essential nate of strategy implementation i hat it entails action. Strategy implementation involves putting the formulated strategies into action through the management processes. in putting strategies into action, managers apply knowledge and techniques of management processes ‘These management processes have been extensively researched and written about in management litera- ture, Strategy implementation renders the intellectual content of strategy formulation into the opera- tional process of practice. + Comprehensive in scope The different aspects involved in strategy implementation cover practically everything that is included in the discipline of management studies. As we will observe in this and the chapters that follow, strategy implementation traverses a wide range of functions and activities. In fact, you can think of anything that involves managerial action and that will be a part of strategy implementa- tion. A marketing manager may develop the marketing budget, allocate sales to sales territories, launch an advertising campaign or initiate a market research project. All these activities are a part of the strategy implementation process. Similarly, various other activities such as establishing cost control procedures, setting operations schedules, designing training programmes or altering the organisation's information system are all strategy implementation activities. « Demanding varied skills Since strategy implementation involves a wide range of activities, a strategist has to bring to his or her task, a wide range of knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities. The implemen- tation tasks put to test the strategists’ abilities, for instance, to allocate resources, design structures and systems, formulate functional policies, take into account the leadership styles required and plan for operational effectiveness, besides dealing with various other issues. « Wide-ranging involvement As opposed to strategy formulation, which is primarily a top management responsibility, strategy implementation necessitates the involvement of middle-level managers. This means that the strategic plan has to be properly communicated to and understood by the middle-manag- ers before they can play an effective role in strategy implementation. * Integrated process The various tasks in strategy implementation are not stand-alone activities. They are interrelated and therefore, strategy implementation has to act in a holistic manner, Each task or activity Performed is related to another, creating an interconnected network, the hub of which has to be the Strategic plan. The flow of the strategy implementation process is moving forward simultaneously on several fronts. Havea look at Exhibit 10.1 to learn how an integrated textile mill implements its strategies. Observe how the company illustrated there translates its strategies into action, gamers resources and creates an elaborate Aetwork of plans, programmes and projects to implement strategies, We will shortly return to this network afer we refer to the barriers to strategy implementation. Exhibit 10.1. Strategy implementation at Nahar Industrial Enterprise Limited Nahar Industrial Enterprises Limited Sperations ran art of the Os, (NIEL) is a vertically-integrated textile manufacturer, covering value chain \gINg from spinning, weaving and processing to finished readymade garments. Set up in 1983 as a wal family group companies, NIEL is based at Ludhiana, Punjab. 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Even though it being a process, implementation moves in fits and starts. This uneven progress of the process does not do much good for te effectiveness of the implementation efforts. Again, managers often do things which they consider to bbe important; they do not do things which are important enough to be done. This results in a lot of confusion and uncoordinated actions. What is required is a clear model of the strategy implementation process that can provide unambiguous guidelines to the managers implementing the strategy. Such model should lay down the elements, or at least the major themes, of the implementation process so that there is a high level of understanding about how the process has to proceed. At the same time, there needs to be a comprehension of how the various elements or themes are interconnected. Effective management of change in complex situations Implementation almost always creates the need to manage change in complex organisational contexts. Many of these areas of change are behavioural in nature and are therefore, multifaceted and messy in nature. For instance, leadership style changes re- 4uired to implement different kinds of strategies or the cultural changes to be brought about to facilitate new strategy implementation are intricate matters that call for careful handling. No wonder, managers often fail to manage these complex organisational issues satisfactor optimal implementation of strategies. Our effort in the remaining part ofthis book would be to focus on these issues. First, we would be deserib- inga clear process of implementation, highlighting the major themes that dominate the process. This would be done in this chapter. Secondly, we would be devoting considerable space to the discussion of complex ‘ssues requiring management of change. These issues would be the subject matter of the chapters that will follow. , creating conditions for a sub- 10.3 INTERRELATIONSHIP OF FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION Before we move to an examination of the major themes in implementing strategies, the ionship of the formulation and implementation of strategies. isto be noted that the division of strategic management into different phases is only for the purpose of rderly study. In real life, the formulation and implementation processes are intertwined.” Two apes of aves exist between these two phases of strategic management, as show! deal with the impact of the formulation on implementation, while the backw. th the impact in the opposite direction. The forward linkage is strong ‘ed arrow as compared to the backward linkage. important to consider cemed Digger-siz Exhibit 10.2 Two-way linkage between formulation and implementation of s | STRATEGY FORMULATION | (THOUGH10:4 A MODEL OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Ayhi ents a c - Exhibit 10.4 presents a model of strategy implementation that attempts to capture the major themes in strat- egy implementation and the activities that make up each theme. The forward linkage from strategic plan guides the implementation Process and connects it to the preceding phase of strategy formulation. The feed- back flowing in reverse from the following step of strategy evaluation and control moves through the imple- mentation phase and goes back to strategy formulation establishing the backward linkage. Exhibit 10.4 A model of strategy implementation ACTIVATING MANAGING ACHIEVING STRATEGIES CHANGE EFFECTIVENESS PROJECT 'MPLEMENTATION | STRUCTURAL IMPLEMENTATION FUNCTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION | | STRATEGIC PLAN Va 1 [EVALUATION & Y | CONTROL OPERATIONAL | Fal IMPLEMENTATION | PROCEDURAL LEADERSHIP. IMPLEMENTATION IMPLEMENTATION BEHAVIOURAL. IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCE ALLOCATION t t t —_—_————_ FEED BACKActivating Strategies 31 Exhibit 10.5 The pyramid of strategy activation STRATEGY PLANS PROGRAMMES PROJECTS BUDGETS POLICIES, PROCEDURES, RULES & REGULATION