Going the Distance: How P/C Insurers Can Put Strategic Plans Into Action

I think everyone will agree that planning what direction a company will take for the next few years takes a bit of effort.

Executive Summary

Following up on an earlier article in which she presented a strategic planning framework for developing corporate goals, Carol Williams, a risk management and strategy consultant for P/C insurers, advises that establishing the "what" of strategic plans and annual initiatives is not the end of the road. Here, she delves into the "how-to" part of the process, drawing on the work of Donald Sull and others involved in the Strategic Agility Project at MIT to explain the main causes of strategic execution failures. One, which is particularly relevant in the P/C insurance world, is presence of siloed cultures.

After all the workshops, one-on-one meetings, risk and data analysis, and good old-fashioned brainstorming, it may be tempting to think the journey is complete and take your foot off the gas. It’s precisely at this juncture when companies need to settle in for the long haul—to go the distance needed to actually achieve the goals that were prioritized.Executive SummaryFollowing up on an earlier article in which she presented a strategic planning framework for developing corporate goals, Carol Williams, a risk management and strategy consultant for P/C insurers, advises that establishing the “what” of strategic plans and annual initiatives is not the end of the road. Here, she delves into the “how-to” part of the process, drawing on the work of Donald Sull and others involved in the Strategic Agility Project at MIT to explain the main causes of strategic execution failures. One, which is particularly relevant in the P/C insurance world, is presence of siloed cultures.