Brian H. Cameron, Whynde Kuehn
In The Execution Challenge: Delivering Great Strategy at Scale, a team of renowned strategy execution researchers and consultants delivers a practical and insightful new take on how to effectively execute strategy in today’s complex, fast-changing environments. The authors focus on the often missing “HOW” of strategy execution ― exploring the holistic perspectives, skills, and approaches needed to inform and translate strategy and create and maintain a “line-of-sight” between your strategy and its execution. You’ll find proven techniques that you can implement to ensure that changes in business strategy are reflected in complementary changes to the organizational project portfolio. The Execution Challenge includes over 70 diagrams and figures, an organizational assessment, and reusable frameworks.
This remarkable book provides a much needed ‘system’ for strategic execution in the form of a business methodology that can capably fill the all too common rift between strategy and implementation. It focuses largely on an end-to-end approach that details how to translate strategy into coordinated action across an entire organization, and how to effectively create a line of sight between enterprise project portfolios and business strategy. Essentially, it is a roadmap for how to make strategy real by clearly describing how to bridge the gap between strategic initiatives and execution. It succinctly navigates the how of strategy execution and unpacks the steps necessary to accomplish this goal.
Cameron and Kuehn begin by confronting the numerous contemporary approaches to strategic development (i.e., the balanced scorecard, Porter’s Five Forces, Hoshin Planning, etc.), then argue that there is little focus on how to make all of these approaches actually happen in reality.
The book takes a holistic approach to a complex topic, largely because it’s underpinned by a strategic business architecture for decision-making. The authors point out that organizations do a great job of helping people to develop strategies and understand the human issues of implementation, such as leadership and organizational change. What companies don’t do is solve the missing link by helping people to combine those skillsets with the process of how to make strategy real – how to bring it to life.
For example, from the outset, a convincing argument is presented that direct alignment between IT and business strategies is not possible. An interim ‘Rosetta Stone’ is needed for effective and sustainable alignment over time. Such an alignment must become the core business capability of the organization – the broad umbrella that represents the strategic business architecture of the company.
The authors go on to point out that an IT strategy is an extremely difficult and ‘weighty’ thing to put together in the first place. They ask whether the alignment of IT strategy with business strategy is the ‘Holy Grail’ of leadership, before presenting a convincing argument that ‘the job of the IT strategy is isn’t to align with the business strategy. It’s to give the businesspeople who create it as many options to change tack as possible. It’s a provider of capability – capability to react to market changes a bit easier and faster – that can have a big impact on the competitive position of the organization.’
Overall, The Execution Challenge includes 70 detailed diagrams, a Strategy Execution Organizational Assessment, and a number of frameworks, such as a Strategy to Execution Ecosystem. It functions as a playbook and provides external validation for the methods and tools influencers must use to effect real organizational change.
What I like most about this book is that it encourages a reevaluation of established practices – a fresh approach to the ‘how’ of strategy with a focus on execution. By using a strategic business architecture, leaders can create an integrated, comprehensive way forward that leverages the best of their teams.
I highly recommend it for any business leader who is seeking a practical, real world look at how to understand and manage strategy.
Summary of the Chapters
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Chapter 1 looks at traditional approaches to strategy development and strategic execution and where problems with this approach typically exist
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Chapter 2 examines the role of strategic business architecture and distinguishes that from what the authors refer to as execution level business architecture
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Chapter 3 looks at the wide variety of tools available today for strategic business architecture and links all of these together in a comprehensive ecosystem that creates a line of sight to tactical execution and changes in business strategy
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Chapter 4 discusses capability perspectives for the organization. This is the heart of the authors overall thesis
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Chapter 5 focuses on strategic portfolio management and making sure that the organization’s project portfolio (and other portfolios) are aligned with the current state of strategy and any changes in strategy
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Chapter 6 includes a discussion of many other architectural domains and business functions that need to be aligned, but often are not in today’s siloed organizations
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Chapter 7 looks at how to build a strategic architecture function and integrate with strategic planning
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Chapter 8 examines scaling and maturing the business architecture function
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Chapter 9 winds up the book by taking a look at some hot strategy execution trends, including AI and how the business architecture can really facilitate these trends.
Year published: 2024
ISBN: 1394210434
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