Hope is not a strategy

A study was conducted of five hundred companies to better understand what causes successful organisations to struggle financially for extended periods of time. The researchers found out that 87 percent of these companies suffered one or more ‘stall points’– a term used to describe the start of a prolonged financial decline.

When the researchers pored through the data to uncover the cause of the stall points, they found that 70 percent were attributed to poor choice about Strategy. While it is convenient to blame the economy for one’s misfortunes, the data clearly show that most financial decline was well within management’s control.

It is an established fact that organisations desiring to succeed must have a well formulated and clearly articulated strategy. However, in our experience with various business challenges that we proffer solutions to everyday, we discovered that, rather than a clear strategy, what most organisations have is “hope”.

They invariably hope:

• That things will go well;

• That employees will know what to do, how to do it, when to do it and the importance of doing it;

• That they will go ahead and actually do that which they have to do in their job roles.

This erroneous assumption has been a catalyst of failure and mediocre performance in many organisations because:

“Hope is simply not a Strategy!”

Organisations seeking and driven by results understand this, and they value the importance of engaging a Winning Strategy that is deeply rooted in their realities.

Execution Is More Important Than Strategy

Is having a Strategy then a guarantee that organisations will be successful?

Unfortunately, the answer to this is NO. It isn’t!

A Strategy cannot be effective in a vacuum, it must be empowered with an effective “execution system & structure”. No matter how superior a Strategy is, without execution, it will not deliver the expected result.

“Superior Strategy cannot and will not compensate for inferior Execution”.

As a matter of fact, great execution is more important than Strategy because Execution itself, when it is exceptional and flawless can give birth to superior Strategy. Hence, the ability of an organisation to execute their objectives exceptionally well is non-negotiable. It is said that it doesn’t matter what your strategy is but it matters greatly how well you are able to execute your strategy.

The Competitive Edge

As your organisation works towards getting better results or creating unique competitive advantage, the ability to execute flawlessly will play a central and crucial role in ensuring the realization of your goals and objectives. This is a critical capability that businesses cannot afford to ignore.

Bolaji Olagunju