Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success

Chapter 8. Without Execution, There Is No Strategy

Back in 1943 General Motors invited a talented young management consultant named Peter Drucker to study the company from the inside out. The book that ultimately was produced as a result of this assignment influenced management thinking for decades to come. But Drucker's recommendations were largely ignored by GM itself, which as the largest carmaker in the world remained stubbornly bureaucratic and complacent.^[66]

Brilliant strategies are only brilliant if they are executed. Your value proposition must not only say, it must be.

"Operationalizing" a positioning strategy means bringing it to life in all of your firm's major business practices. This involves identifying key imperatives that will need to be addressed with the same commitment and urgency as client business. Unless you translate your initiatives into action, they are really only intentions. And the only way these initiatives will get done is if the top management of the firm models the behavior it expects of other associates. Commitment, discipline, and action start from the top. If it's important to the CEO and the management team, it will be important to everyone else.

Most important, if the firm's leaders have high expectations, they will get high performance. If they have low expectations, the status quo will prevail. In fact, research has shown that High expectations centered on a goal that takes unusual effort produces unusual results. Normal expectations centered ...