JOYS AND CHALLENGES

OF CRAFTING
STRATEGY AND
EXECUTION OF
STRATEGY

Name: Velisha Mehta

Roll No.: QA04
Class: M.Pharm + MBA
Subject: Business Strategy
Management
Date of submission: 08/04/2019
 JOYS AND CHALLENGES OF CRAFTING STRATEGY AND EXECUTION OF
STRATEGY

A strategic plan helps companies slough off the things they aren’t good at
doing so they can better focus on the things that they are. A strategic plan also
lays the groundwork for improving those things that need a little (or a lot of)
work.
Crafting Strategy
Crafting Strategy: being in a state of being that is future focused that includes
- visualizing and imagining- and simultaneously realistic and cautious
- planning, plus advancing readiness to change course under alternate
scenarios.

➢ Primarily a market-driven activity.

Strategic management analyses the major initiatives taken by a
company's top management on behalf of owners, involving resources and
performance in internal and external environments.
➢ Crafting the strategy involves:
• Identifying the desired competencies and capabilities to build
into the strategy to help achieve a competitive advantage
➢ Successful strategy making depends on
o Business vision
o Perceptive analysis of market conditions and company capabilities
o Attracting and pleasing customers
o Outcompeting rivals
o Using company capabilities to forge a competitive advantage

Joys in crafting of strategy:

• Crafting of Strategy plans for the future patterns from the past such as
vision and mission, targets and strategies.
• Strategy implemented according to time and set into external
environment will be helpful to achieve market shift in new direction.

Challenges in crafting a strategy are as follows:

➢ Crafting a strategy is deciding how and with whom you will win.
o One should be familiar with the product or service you will be selling.
o One should be familiar with the customer you’ll be serving. Are you
targeting a new customer type or geography, or is the customer
similar to ones you’ve served in the past?
o One should be familiar with the business model. Are you rethinking
the way you operate, such as by lowering your capital needs, getting
closer to customers, or adding an ecosystem of complementary
services?
These business model imperatives can impact both product and
customer selection. As you stray farther from the core along any of these
 three dimensions, you’re increasing both your growth potential and your
risk.
➢ Customer preferences are not been understood during crafting of strategy.
➢ Achievement of financial objectives is not been understood.
➢ Strategy are not aligned to organizational culture will meet with resistance
and opposition. Meaningful communication is the key.
➢ Not successful enough to gain the opportunities to do new things or existing
things in a better way.
➢ Changes to be done accordingly business environment changes.
➢ Failure occurs due to weak empowerment and lack of perseverance.
➢ Different strategies will create confusion.
➢ There can be risks of uncertainties while crafting strategy.
➢ Could not compete with the technology advancement.
➢ Crafting of strategy can only be successful in a business when one works
collaboratively and unitedly with each other.

Execution of Strategy
Execution of strategy: strategy execution is Execution: The Discipline of
Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Bossidy, a
retired CEO, and Charan, a renowned management consultant, make the
case for execution as a discipline or “systematic way of exposing reality
and acting on it.” They explain that “the heart of execution lies in three
core processes":
1. People
2. Strategy
3. Operations

• Primarily an operations-driven activity

• Successful strategy execution depends on
o Doing a good job of working through others
o Good organization-building
o Building competitive capabilities
o Creating a strategy-supportive culture
o Getting things done and delivering good results
• Execution of strategy is tougher and more time-consuming than crafting
strategy.

Joys in Execution of Strategy are as follows:

➢ Strategy execution helps in transforming goals into action. The two best
signs of good strategy execution are whether a company is meeting or
beating its performance target and whether they are performing value chain
activities in manner that is conducive to companywide operating
excellence.
➢ Leaders focus on execution first and strategy second.
o Executing strategy is an action-oriented, make-things happen task.
o Implementing a new strategy takes adept leadership.
 o Execution of strategy aims at developing consensus and enthusiasm
amongst employees
o Maintain coordination and communication for effective
implementation
o It involves everyone in an organization to work together to achieve the
common goal.
➢ Company’s strategy executing approaches to the particulars situation,
certain managerial bases must be covered no matter what the
circumstances are:
o Staff the organization with the managers and employees capable of
executing the strategy well.
o Build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy
execution.
o Establish a strategy supportive organizational structure.
o Allocate sufficient resources to the strategy execution effort.
o Institute policies and procedures that facilitate strategy execution.
o Adopt the best practices and business processes that drive
continuous improvement.
o Install information and operating systems that enable company
personnel to carry out their strategic roles.
o Tie rewards and incentives directly to the achievement of strategic
and financial targets.
o Instill a corporate culture that promotes good strategy execution.
o Exercise strong leadership needed to propel strategy execution
implementation forward.

Challenges in Execution of Strategy are as follows:

• 90% of organizations fail to effectively execute their strategic plans,
according to Harvard Business School. The biggest challenges to
strategy implementation will help you avoid the most common pitfalls and
better set your company up for success.
➢ Weak Strategy: There should be distinct milestones, clear timelines,
and precise roles for employees.
➢ Ineffective training: Finding the right training option saves money by
preventing too much down time, strengthens skills or teaches new
skills, and provides follow up to ensure employees execute those
lessons in their daily workflows.
➢ Lack of resources: The most common direct costs of executing a new
strategy are associated with the consultants or board members
brought in to plan, execute, and provide training, as well as the cost
of any new associated technology. This can be prohibitive for a
company of any size, especially small- to mid-sized companies and
non-profits.
➢ Lack of communication: Communication is key in the execution of any
new strategy. An effective communication plan must be initiated from
the top down. Transparent, honest communication is not only the
 quality of an effective organization, but it is a necessary step for any
new roll out. Lack of communication results in disjointed teams and
widespread uncertainty. It’s not uncommon for teams, especially
those who have been working together for an extended period of
time, to be resistant to change. And nothing torpedoes the
effectiveness of a strategic implementation faster than a lack of
cooperation among teams. Communication clearly from Day 1 each
person’s new role, their importance to the end result, and the ultimate
benefit to a change to their own current routine. Help everyone
understand that a little pain now will result in big progress down the
line.
➢ Lack of follow through: There should be regularly scheduled formal
reviews of the new strategy to review processes, ensure the plan is
performing as designed, and make any necessary tweaks. We
suggest holding these meetings once a quarter.

Conclusion:
Strategic priorities can ensure that employees at every level of the organization
work on the most critical activities. Execution of strategy is a tough task to
accomplish that has numerous challenges but at the same time is of utmost
importance to the organization. So as a future career option, execution of a
strategy is more exciting as it involves continuous learning, so if we learn how
to execute a strategy, crafting a strategy would be easy.