Mastering Your Strategic Implementation Plan

These executives feel the pain of wasting time, money, and other resources on work that is disconnected from strategy. In some cases, they are prioritizing lower-value projects, funding work not on the strategic plan, and staffing projects with the wrong people at the wrong time.

Other times, there is a need to respond to operational tasks with urgency. And even if these tasks don’t’ appear to be as closely aligned to strategy as other work, they’re still important.

As such, there is even more need for accountability and alignment in strategy implementation to ensure that the bulk of the money and resources support the organization’s long-term strategic goals. There’s where a strategic implementation plan can help.

Implementing the strategic plan means mapping out and executing the work that will achieve your strategic goals and objectives. This is critical when business moves fast, and growth initiatives are more ambitious and complex.

Adherence to a strategic plan implementation – with flexibility to adapt as needed – yields many benefits. Among these are improved performance, increased competitiveness, and higher margins.

This article outlines why and how you should develop a plan for strategic implementation, overcome challenges, and apply best practices. First, a few definitions are in order.

A strategic implementation plan documents how the organization will achieve its goals. This is where the action starts, moving from the high-level, aspirational strategy to ground-level execution.

A good plan is the vital link between strategy and delivery. It’s a roadmap to success.

To create the plan, leaders translate the strategy and objectives into progressively smaller components. This starts with determining which initiatives, programs, and projects to undertake. The level of detail gets more granular for the execution teams and individual contributors.

Strategy formation versus strategy implementation

Strategy implementation cannot begin until business leaders sets the company’s strategic direction. Strategy formulation is normally the first part of the strategic planning process. It should yield a clear vision that informs and facilitates the implementation plan.

A comprehensive strategic plan for execution is essential for driving transformation and organizational change. This change can be in the form of:

• Being first to capitalize on new industry trends and opportunities
• Adjusting to accommodate changing customer preferences
• Implementing new technology that enables the business to save money through better efficiency and collaboration
• Entering into a new industry, and more

Effective strategic plan implementation empowers business leaders to have more control over the positive results, whether it’s an internal transformation initiative or launching a new product.

Companies are more likely to achieve goals when strategy is connected directly to execution. Portfolio leaders can allocate resources more efficiently and apply them to the highest-priority initiatives. Simply put, an effective implementation plan makes it easier to realize business outcomes, such as increased revenue and better operational efficiency.

For project teams, an implementation process that works is equally important. It means they understand how their day-to-day work supports the strategy and it empowers teams to prioritize the work that pushes them closer to achieving those strategic goals.

A good strategic implementation plan also facilitates better strategic alignment. Strategic roadmaps keep teams and stakeholders focused on common objectives. Projects are more likely to be executed well and on strategy.

You can even factor course corrections into your strategic plan and implementation, lading the groundwork for more efficient pivots when plans change due to a host of things, such as:

• Shifting internal priorities
• New and disruptive technology
• Economic headwinds
• New opportunities and more

Download this guide to learn how you can make course corrections part of your plan, empowering your team to make smart, agile decisions that result in better business outcomes.

A good implementation plan starts with a strategy that’s comprehensive yet manageable. The following five steps will help develop a plan that supports the strategy and creates results.

1. Define the clear objectives and goals of the strategic plan

The first step is to ensure everyone comprehends the strategy. This is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process. Knowing the goals and objectives will help create a realistic plan based on the desired business outcomes.

Once the objectives are clear, translate the strategic objectives into measurable business outcomes. This is an excellent time to start drafting OKRs to quantify your goals and measure your progress towards achieving them.

You can learn more about OKRs at the strategy level by reading this eBook on strategic OKRs.

2. Identify the key stakeholders involved in the implementation process

A clear understanding of the goals and objectives helps determine who should be involved in planning. This ranges from high-level executives to individual contributors. The key is to bring the right expertise across functions to construct the best plan possible.

3. Create a detailed timeline and budget

Setting the timeline and scheduling milestones helps keep projects and programs on track. The plan should include the resources needed at each stage, such as budget and technical requirements. Teams look to the roadmap for direction and progress, including what to do when.

As part of the implementation process, the EPMO and other business leaders will decide which programs and projects will best achieve the strategic outcomes.

4. Assign roles and responsibilities to team members

The strategic implementation plan should clearly delineate who is responsible for what. Assigning ownership creates focus and a sense of responsibility. It also prevents issues such as duplicate work and resource conflicts.

The responsibilities dictated in the plan can but do not have to be at the task level. Agile teams, for example, need autonomy to flourish. If teams understand the strategy and their contribution to it, they will deliver.

5. Monitor and evaluate the progress of the plan regularly

This entails not just being on time or budget, but also whether the work is still on strategy and will deliver business value. Some organizations revisit the plan continuously or at least quarterly. For example, changes in resource availability inevitably happen, so leaders need to adapt the plan as required.

Executing on strategy often comes with numerous challenges. Implementing a strategic plan will prevent or mitigate many of these. Here are a few challenges to anticipate and how to overcome each.

Unclear strategy: Misalignment between key business functions and company strategy can lead to several negative consequences ranging from missed opportunities, inefficient work, and lower profitability. This happens when management has not established a clear link between the strategy and how teams should implement it. Unclear strategy can lead to teams feeling demotivated and/or defaulting to familiar work that may be disconnected from the current strategy.

This highlights the importance of clearly communicating the strategy and objectives. The implementation plan must support the strategy and give guidance to employees. Also, leaders and managers must cascade the objectives to the teams and individuals responsible for execution.

Resistance to change: Some people may balk at following a strategic implementation plan in the first place. Others may object to their evolving job responsibilities. Whatever the issues are, it’s human nature for some to resist change.

Leaders must communicate that it will take the entire organization to make progress. Engage the staff early and involve them in planning processes. Enlist employees who want to innovate, move faster, and get meaningful work done to act as ambassadors for the plan.

Lack of resource and capacity planning capabilities: Without advanced resource management capabilities, it will be difficult to plan for and execute new initiatives. The company may be prioritizing investments that cannot be delivered with current staffing. This can lead to higher costs, delays, and lost productivity.

EPMOs and other leaders need resource management solutions that can provide enterprise-wide visibility into current demand, staffing and project status. Ideally, the company can model different scenarios, compare trade-offs, and plan accordingly. Armed with these capabilities, leaders can ensure that the right resources are working on the right projects.

Resource conflicts: Making the most of limited resources is the central concern for most organizations. Without structure and processes around strategic planning and execution, companies risk wasting time, money, and other resources.

For example, a McKinsey Global Survey on resource allocation found only about half of companies effectively align their budgets with their corporate strategies – or fully fund the prioritized investments. This leaves business units and department heads scrambling for budget to execute and complete projects.

Strategic portfolio management enables companies to put the right resources on the highest-value initiatives. Constant monitoring of strategic implementation provides early warnings on issues involving resources.

Ineffective communication and collaboration: Teams must work closely together to adhere to the strategy execution plan. Often, these are cross-functional teams building complex products and services across time zones, cultures, and different ways of working. Poor communication and collaboration will derail execution quickly.

The strategic implementation plan should include a clear playbook for communications. Teams need guidance on who will communicate with certain stakeholders (for example, updates to executives and customers). Consistent, effective communications will increase motivation, engagement, and productivity.

Strategic Implementation Case Studies

Here are a couple of examples of how real-world organizations have overcome implementation challenges.

Santander UK, a financial services company, had too many disparate systems across IT and the business. Leaders had no clear line of sight into progress and how delivery rolled up to strategic objectives/portfolio investments.

Using Planview’s Strategic Portfolio Management solution, Santander UK obtained end-to-end visibility that reduced time to market, with 25 percent faster decision-making and 80 percent better budget/funding allocations.

Read Santander UK’s story here.

NatWest, a banking firm, could not prioritize strategic initiatives. With Planview’s Enterprise Agile Planning and Strategic Portfolio Management solutions, NatWest went from 400+ unprioritized business initiatives down to fewer than 50, with visual investment/capacity prioritization capabilities.

Read NatWest’s story here.

From cultural norms to use of technology, strategic planning and implementation impact nearly every aspect of the company. After all, the purpose is to streamline execution and produce work that matters to the business. Following these best practices will make the process flow more smoothly and effectively.

Ensure the company can execute the strategy

Some strategies look great on paper but don’t translate well to the real world. EPMO’s have a role in educating the C-suite on what can realistically be accomplished. Planning teams need insight into whether the organization has adequate budget, the right resource availability and skills, and time frames that can accommodate the new strategic objectives.

Integrate plans into daily activities

Make strategy part of teams’ daily work rather than delineating strategic work from other projects. This will help ensure your strategic implementation is effective, while helping teams understand how their work aligns with company goals.

Engage stakeholders, to a point

Responsibility for execution should be limited to the implementation team. Input from too many people can lead to misunderstandings, scope creep, and delays. It’s important to obtain customer feedback and provide updates to stakeholders, but stick to the plan of action.

Focus on building business agility

Executives and boards want the agility to adapt quickly to change. Strategic plan implementation can help the business move faster and more efficiently when leaders are empowered by fast, accurate data that informs decision making. Choose technology like an effective Strategic Portfolio Management solution to cultivate this agility and flexibility.

After all, high-performing enterprises are too complex to be run via spreadsheets and assumptions. Executives need a cross-portfolio, command view of the organization. Real-time, accurate data and analytics improves and speeds decision-making, such as which projects to prioritize.

Plan for pivots

The exercise of developing a strategy implementation plan naturally brings risks to light. Contingency planning is smart and should be included in the plan.

A strategic implementation plan is a bridge between the strategic goals and tangible operational execution.

Rather than let strategy wither on the vine, executives must follow through on the plan. It’s essential to delivering strategic objectives that will create business value.

In the process, the C-suite can develop the agility needed to adjust the plan based on real-time, accurate, and current data and analytics. Companies that adopt a strategic plan implementation process see benefits such as improved time-to-market, higher customer and employee satisfaction, and increased revenue. Can yours afford not to do strategic implementation planning?

Don’t let misaligned projects and resource conflicts undermine the strategic value your teams deliver. Allocate resources effectively, fund high-impact initiatives, and stay on track with your strategic goals easier with the help of Planview. Access our on-demand Strategic Portfolio Management demo and see how you can transform strategy into tangible outcomes.