HBR Guide to Managing Strategic Initiatives

CHAPTER 21

Your Strategy Has to Be Flexible—But So Does Your Execution

by Martin Reeves and Rodolphe Charme di Carlo

Peter Drucker said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” This and a slew of similar maxims reflect a common view of strategy execution: that it’s distinct from strategy, harder to pull off than defining a strategy, and therefore more critical to success—underpinned by seemingly indisputable virtues such as diligence, discipline, consistency, alignment, and focus. But such a simplistic view of execution can be misleading and can reduce actual impact.

In fact, several frequently observed traps result from such a view of execution:

Losing the plot

Action plans and Gantt charts can span ...