A Consultant’s Guide for Strategy to Execution: Top Five Considerations
By Jibility Co-Founder Chuen Seet
The gap between strategy and execution is a common pitfall for many organizations. Such a difficulty for clients will be all too familiar to a strategy consultant.
Helping organizations overcome the strategy to execution challenge is one of the most impactful things a consultant can do. In helping an organization develop its strategy, you also need to set them up so that they can successfully execute on it. Otherwise, the strategy that you all worked so hard on risks doing little more than sit on a shelf.
The Jibility team come from consulting backgrounds, and we have identified five key considerations that consultants bring to the table to help clients bridge the strategy to execution gap.
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1. Align Strategy with Business Goals
The first and most critical consideration for a consultant tasked with strategy to execution is to align the strategy with the business goals. Before developing a strategy, it is important to understand the organization’s goals, as well as its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Once you understand these factors, you should be able to clearly articulate the challenges (whether problems or opportunities) and the objectives which must be met to address the challenges. Understanding the challenges and objectives will help shape the direction and solutions required for the organization to achieve its strategy.
Throughout this process, engaging stakeholders is imperative. By involving stakeholders from various levels and departments, you’ll gain diverse perspectives, insights, and expertise that can challenge assumptions, identify blind spots, and enhance the strategic decision-making process. Neglecting stakeholder engagement risks misalignment, resistance, or missed opportunities for innovation and growth.
2. Develop a Clear Strategic Roadmap
Once you have developed a strategy that aligns with the organization’s goals, the next consideration is to develop a clear strategic roadmap. The strategic roadmap should outline the steps needed to implement the strategy and achieve the desired outcomes. This type of roadmap is not a detailed implementation plan. A strategic roadmap is a high-level view of the organization’s initiatives, helping you communicate the scope of work and delivery sequence. Its primary purpose is to help build consensus with key stakeholders and get their buy-in.
To develop a clear strategic roadmap, you can take a traditional top-down approach to formulate a list of initiatives, or employ capability-based planning, which focuses on identifying business capability change to derive the list of initiatives.
3. Identify Key Risks and Mitigation Strategies
The third consideration for a consultant tasked with strategy to execution is to identify key risks and develop mitigation strategies. Every strategy comes with risks, and it is important to identify these risks and develop strategies to minimize them. This can include developing contingency plans, establishing risk management protocols, and creating backup plans in case of unforeseen events.
To identify key risks, it is important to conduct a thorough risk assessment. This can include analyzing potential risks related to the strategy, the organization’s resources, and external factors such as competition, regulatory changes, and economic conditions. By identifying key risks and developing mitigation strategies, you can ensure that the strategy remains on track even in the face of unexpected challenges.
4. Foster Collaboration and Communication
Fostering collaboration and communication with your stakeholders throughout the strategy to execution process ensures a sense of ownership, commitment, and collective responsibility towards the strategy. Needless to say, this increases the likelihood of successful implementation and alignment across the organization.
Establish regular check-ins, host progress reviews, and provide frequent updates. Stay visible and accessible to your stakeholders at all times.
5. Measure and Evaluate Progress
Measuring and evaluating the progress of strategic objectives is paramount for bridging the gap between strategy and execution. It serves as a continuous feedback loop that allows organizations to assess their performance, identify areas of improvement, and make necessary adjustments to stay on track.
Regular evaluation provides insights into what is working well and what needs to be modified, enabling adaptability in response to changing market dynamics or internal circumstances. This iterative process ensures that the organization remains agile, responsive, and focused on achieving its strategic goals. Without measuring and evaluating progress, the strategy execution risks becoming a disjointed endeavor, lacking the necessary course correction and refinement to maximize effectiveness and deliver desired outcomes.
How Jibility Can Help
Jibility is a software tool designed to help consultants and organizations develop strategic roadmaps to bridge the strategy to execution gap. It guides users through a step-by-step approach for translation of strategic objectives into a roadmap of initiatives.