MAKE YOUR STRATEGIES RELEVANT

A luminous strategy, brilliant product, or powerful technology can get you on the competitive map, but only solid execution can keep you there.

Today's unpredictable and fast-changing business environment means that not adjusting your strategy and keeping it flexible in the rapidly changing environment is no longer a choice. Strategies are hostages to events you can't control: it's critical to constantly take the landscape into consideration and anticipate and adjust as events unfold. Strategy must be relevant and understood by all; you don't have a strategy unless everybody down to the front-line employees can embody it, because your clients will never experience it.

It's important to remember that strategy concerns for leaders go way beyond formulating and rolling it out. According to Kaplan execution is where most strategies fail, somewhere around 80 per cent don't link to what the organisation is really doing, and 95 per cent of employees don't really understand it. Many leaders forget that strategy execution means they have to formulate, implement and then monitor, and how they react to this depends very much on the organisation's situation, and usually this doesn't develop in a straight line. Sometimes, if the organisation can really predict where it is going, a systematic approach will work; often when we are not too sure what the future holds a systematic approach means big trouble over the horizon: we just can't see what is coming, and then we need to be more systemic in our approach.

It all starts with actually having a valid strategy and testing it in the current climate. Is the strategy still appropriate? What needs to change? How do we make it into a reality? Many organisations have issues that won't respond to traditional management and leadership interventions, because they are interwoven with so many other layers of complexity that we don't see the effects until it's too late.

It's imperative to identify these "hopeful" issues by taking a systemic approach and discover whether the way we intend to achieve the strategy is really the most appropriate, as if it's inappropriate it's guaranteed to make the situation worse. Additionally we must consider whether we are utilising all the advantages in the organisation we have. Are only a few people tackling the strategy issues when people better placed are not involved? Using dormant resources will save you a fortune in consultants and will keep staff engaged and in possession of the strategy.

In tough times like this it is essential to test the strategy and make sure it's robust enough for a future where business-environment factors may be radically changing.

The capacity to adapt your strategy is critical if you want to develop competitive advantage. Organisations that stick to a single approach struggle when the situation gets complicated or uncertainty looms, these really benefit by taking a systemic view and generating a better understanding of the situation they are really facing now, and adjusting strategy accordingly.

If you are fortunate enough to truly understand where you are going with a great degree of certainty then a more systematic approach is required. This can get the entire organisation involved, ultimately guaranteeing greater productivity. It's best to work from your core values and what makes your organisation unique and spotting and closing gaps quickly. You can develop a project-based approach to meet all requirements and drive strategic clarity throughout the organisation. Develop your people accordingly to move you to your goal.

It is essential to remember strategy is nothing without people. Your people must be aligned, and a supporting people strategy linked directly to your business strategy is a must. Most organisations are comfortable with business strategy but quite at a loss concerning people strategy. Your people strategy must support what the business is trying to achieve.

Keep your eye on the present, adjust as things change and make sure your people understand what your strategy is and what it means, and most importantly how to carry it out; and develop the people and structures you need to make sure things get done right by people with the right skills.

Arinya Talergnsri is managing director of APMGroup, Thailand's leading people and organisational development consultancy.