Peter Drucker said: “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” This and a slew of similar maxims reflect a common view of strategy execution: that it’s distinct from strategy, harder to pull off than defining a strategy, and therefore more critical to success—underpinned by seemingly indisputable virtues such as diligence, discipline, consistency, alignment, and focus. But such a simplistic view of execution can be misleading and can reduce actual impact.
In fact, several frequently observed traps result from such a view of execution.
Losing the Plot.
Metric Obsession.
Planning Myopia.
Missed Learning Opportunities.
The Tyranny of Intermediate Goals.
Missing the Forest for the Trees.
Execution as a Thing.
The Tyranny of Practicality.
We should not let the simplistic but comforting dualism of strategy and execution deceive us. Execution should be as varied, as thoughtful, as subtle, as diverse, and as intertwined with strategy as is necessary to get the job done, and that will vary according to the specific challenge at hand. In short, your execution needs a strategy.
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Author: Martin Reeves , Senior Partner & Managing Director; Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, New York