Strategy and Execution

How does your company move from Good to Great? What Defines “Great?” Jim Collins answers this by posing 12 Questions that your business needs to answer to achieve greatness. As a quick review Collins was asked what is a great organization—what are the criteria of greatness? He suggested there are three tests: Superior Results, Distinctive Impact, and Lasting Endurance.  Superior Results In business, performance is defined by financial results—return on invested capital—and achievement of corporate purpose. In the social sectors, performance is defined by results and efficiency in delivering on the social mission.  But whether business or social, you must achieve top-flight results. To use an analogy, if you are a sports team, you must win championships; if you don’t find a way to win at your chosen game, you cannot be considered truly great.  Distinctive Impact A truly great enterprise makes such a unique contribution to the communities it touches, and does its work with...

Execution is not just tactics – it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it. He cannot delegate its substance.   Execution is not just something that does or doesn’t get done. Execution is a specific set of behaviours and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage. It is a discipline of its own. In big companies and small ones, it is the critical discipline for success. Leading for execution is not rocket science. It’s very straightforward stuff. The main requirement is that you as a leader have to be deeply and passionately engaged in your organization and honest about its realities with others and yourself. If you don’t know how to execute, the whole of your effort as a leader will always be less than the sum of its parts. To understand execution, you have to keep three key points in mind: Execution is ...