Strategy Success Factors

• Certain tips can enhance strategy success. echecs image by Marco Sgarbi from Fotolia.com

  Businesses set long-term and short-term goals in order to prepare for the future. The goals that they set involve tactics and actions (strategy) to achieve their stated goals. In order to execute the strategy successfully, certain factors must be included. The strategy must be bold, simple and educational.

Bold

• A successful strategy challenges; it is bold. The strategy forces the organization to stretch past its current, comfortable capabilities. For example, a customer service strategy that states it take 10 percent more service calls is not as bold as one that states it will implement social media in order to answer customer service requests. The first tactic merely continues to do more of the same, while the second method causes the organization to think differently on how customer service requests are handled. In addition, the second method has the potential to save money and be re-purposed for other uses in the organization.

Simple

• The strategy must be simple. Those who desire to the implement the strategy must be able to articulate it quickly and easily; the strategy has to be easy to explain. Likely, more than one person or even one department may be required to implement the strategy in order to make it successful. Avoid the use of jargon, acronyms or other technical language that may confuse the audience. If the strategy can be easily explained, those who execute it can easily understand it and, in turn, explain it to others. For example, a strategy that states the customer service department will use social media to handle customer requests is easy to explain and remember. On the other hand, a strategy that states the customer service department will handle 10 percent more calls, decrease costs by 12 percent, reduce staffing by 5 percent and implement a new computer system, is much harder to explain. Although the results may be the same, the first example is easily understood.

Educational

• For success, the strategy must educate the stakeholders and those that will implement it. The strategy should require leaders to look at the political, environmental, social and technological forces that could help or hamper its successful execution. For example, the strategy that uses social media to handle customer requests must be aware of regulations concerning customer privacy. These types of questions must be answered prior to setting the strategy. It is best to answer these questions early in the process as to avoid future obstacles to implementation. The stakeholders and those who will execute the strategy deserve to have these questions answered for them. When this is done, it will be easier to get their commitment to work to ensure that the strategy is a success.