To have a Strategy Execution Platform For success, it's important to keep an eye on critical factors that can boost or hinder your management. We've separated six topics for you not to lose sight of.
1. Leadership involvement and commitment
It is very important that the company's leadership and top positions are involved and committed to the organization's strategic management. According to Guilherme Barbassa, director of Stratec, if leadership is not involved in the process, other employees will not feel the need to get involved. “When leadership is not involved, management falls into the hands of ‘local heroes,’ but they cannot, on their own, achieve the necessary motivation to move the process forward,” he stresses. André Vidmar, Partner-Consultant at Soluções Certas Consultoria, states that the success of strategy implementation depends on the involvement of the people who will execute it. “Keeping them (the people) aligned and capable of thinking systematically about the future, and not just about present actions, is an essential factor,” he adds.
2. Clarity in strategy communication
Another critical factor for the success of strategic management is the effective communication of the strategic plan throughout the organization. Barbassa states that it is very important for everyone to know their part in the whole and to commit to it. For this, communication is fundamental. “There is no drawer strategy, because it is not the director who makes the strategy happen. It only happens when the entire company is involved and people can see themselves in this strategy,” he affirms. Vidmar adds that for people to understand and materialize strategic objectives and goals, they need to be aligned with the objectives and goals of the operation, of the company's day-to-day.
3. Have an established strategic management process
It is very important for an organization, whether private or public, to have a structured strategic management process in place. According to Vidmar, it is essential for companies to have formalized strategic planning, which allows them to guide their actions in a structured way and seek to achieve future objectives and goals, such as improving performance, expanding market share, conquering new markets, etc. Barbassa agrees and adds that strategic management can't be a one-off thing, it has to be an ongoing procedure within the company and this process has to include meetings to critically analyze the strategy and sectoral performance that contributes to this strategy. “This shouldn't depend on one-off efforts, it should be continuous in the company so that everyone knows that the meeting is going to take place, what the dynamics of the meeting are, and what each participant is expected to prepare so that the meeting is as effective as possible,” he warns.
4. Formation of a consistent organizational culture
Organizational culture is what drives actions within the organization. Barbassa states that it is extremely important to have an organizational climate geared towards achieving goals and seeking solutions. “Organizations should not just work in ‘feuds’ but should see the overall result. Some organizational cultures favor ‘local optimality’ instead of ‘global optimality,’ and with that, effective strategic management can be compromised,” he warns. Vidmar draws attention to the importance of making the alignment between strategy and management clear in the organization's culture. “This is the great challenge for organizations in their pursuit of performance improvement, and in light of this, management by indicators is fundamental to enabling change in the corporate environment, which begins to view problems as challenges and to create in the present the winning possibilities of tomorrow,” he says.
5. Have a tool to support strategic management
Having a tool or system that allows managers to monitor the indicators, targets and actions of the entire company facilitates the strategic management process and its success. According to Vidmar, management must guarantee the implementation of what has been effectively structured and defined in the strategy, as well as constantly evaluating and reviewing it, enabling strategic planning to connect with day-to-day reality. “To ensure that management takes place in an integrated manner, operational processes need to be identified, analyzed, optimized and formalized. In addition, the organization's strategic indicators from its planning must be identified, monitored and continuously controlled,” he says. To do all this accurately, there is nothing better than having software that provides a map of the entire strategy defined by the company, produces reports, indicates whether actions are overdue, helps monitor indicators, translates the information into graphs, in short, software that gathers and facilitates the interpretation of the information needed for the company's decision-making, such as Stratec's Strategic Management software.
6. Constant monitoring and re-evaluation of the strategy
The last critical factor for the success of strategic management is the constant monitoring and reevaluation of the strategy within the organization. Barbassa explains that “essentially, this means having PDCA embedded in the strategic management process. Not only overseeing the execution of the strategy, but also having a moment for critical analysis in this process and replanning whenever necessary.” According to him, this procedure will provide tools like competitive intelligence, which will monitor the market and signal the need for strategy changes. Vidmar adds that “simply planning or defining your strategies well is not enough: they must be implemented in the best possible way. Review your strategic plan periodically, create a strategic planning committee, and have budgeting and indicator tracking tools aligned with the strategic plan and its dynamic revisions,” he advises.
It's important to emphasize that strategic planning is not static but rather dynamic, and therefore, alterations, corrective measures, and changes in direction will be necessary in the trajectory of your company or public agency. It's a positive aspect to have a culture of change within the organization, so that there's the possibility to constantly create new perspectives for success.
