‘Be Ambidextrous’ and Other Tips for Aligning Strategy and Execution

Quality, innovation, profitability and growth all depend on having your company’s strategy and execution aligned, says a recent article from PwC’s strategy+business.

Strategy is your promise to deliver value to your customers. Execution occurs in the thousands of decisions made each day by people at every level of your company.

What steps can you take to ensure your strategy and execution fit together seamlessly?

• Be ambidextrous. Managers must be able to understand the technical and operational details of a project in depth while also considering the broader ramifications for the business and industry in order to make the right high-level decisions.

• Clarify everyone’s strategic role. Workers need to understand why their jobs make a difference and why the company’s advancement will help their own advancement.

• Transcend functional barriers. Put together cross-functional teams to blueprint, build and roll out capabilities. Appoint a single executive to lead each team, with the authority to set incentives for performance.

• Keep it simple, sometimes. Be as simple as possible, letting your company’s strategy guide the level of complexity. Build the capabilities needed to effectively serve your markets and customers.

• Cultivate collective mastery. Strive to create a culture where communication is open and constant—where your strategists talk easily with functional specialists to understand what will work and your functional specialists know not only what they’re supposed to do but why it matters.

For more tips on aligning strategy and execution, see the full article: “10 Principles of Strategy through Execution.”