“It’s not strategy vs. execution – It’s strategy and execution with the right balance in the right timeframes”
We found this Harvard Business Review perspective from Millán Alvarez-Miranda and Michael Watkins helpful: How New CEOs Can Balance Strategy and Execution
From a Foundstone perspective, we’re seeing it’s the leaders that don’t treat Strategy and Execution as completely separate disciplines that are the ones carving their way through uncertainty.
Below are some of the key bits of the article that we found helpful.
What are you seeing in this space?
“Every CEO must simultaneously develop strategy and drive execution — and the need to do both at once has never been more urgent”
“companies need to drive short-term results while also rethinking strategy amid seismic shifts in competitive environments and ways of working”
“Boards assume that CEOs understand that short-term goals and execution are vital priorities”
“while new CEOs instead focus on vision and strategy”
“As a result, they build a strategy that is not grounded in the competitive, customer, and cultural realities”
“Failing to develop a coherent, efficient strategy deployment process while maintaining execution excellence…..”
“Many organisations have some sort of strategy implementation process. But it doesn’t work because it’s complex, time-consuming, and lacks buy-in from lower-level leaders who believe it’s not built to help them do their jobs”
“As a result, the strategy remains conceptual, not operational”
An approach of “design thinking” and “business model prototyping” are key to making the right decisions of where you invest more of your time and resources.