Strategic Planning For Dummies®

Chapter 14. Putting Your Plan to Work

In This Chapter

• Establishing a solid process to execute your strategic plan

• Determining how you roll out and communicate your plan across the organization

• Using accountability to help achieve your goals

• Monitoring your plan and assessing changes as needed

Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals. Implementing your strategic plan is as important, or even more important, than your strategy. The critical actions move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions that drive business growth. Sadly, the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to implement them. According to a Fortune cover story in 1999, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan for many reasons:

• 60 percent of organizations don't link strategy to budgeting

• 75 percent of organizations don't link employee incentives to strategy

• 86 percent of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy

• 95 percent of a typical workforce doesn't understand their organization's strategy.

A strategic plan provides a business with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific strategic direction and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and be successful. However, this is just a plan; it doesn't guarantee that the desired performance is reached any more than having a roadmap guarantees the traveler arrives at the desired ...