STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: TURNING GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT PERFORMANCE

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: TURNING
GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT
PERFORMANCE
BY
TANKO AHMED, fwc
Senior Fellow (Security & Strategic Studies)
Research Directorate, National Institute, Kuru
08037031744 – ta_mamuda@yahoo.com

A Lecture Delivered to the NIPSS Policy,
Strategy and Leadership Course 27 on Tuesday,
18 July, 2017

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/9922061649090238

WHO DARES WIN
• The phrase ‘Who Dares Win’ came from the
popular motto of the British Special Air Service
– an elite unit of the British military which is
often tasked with the most difficult operations
under pressure of time and resources.
• The title of this Paper – ‘Strategy
Implementation: Turning Great Strategy into
Great Performance’ – aspires to discuss how
great strategy turns into great performance.
• The theme of the NIPSS-PLSC 27 of July 2017,
‘Nigerian National Health Policy’ provides the
enough attributes, challenges and remedies as
testing ground for turning great strategy into
great performance.

Some Illustrations from Popular Adage
• The proof of the pudding is in the eating
• ‘Good, better, best never let it rest until your good is
better and your better best’
• ‘People never improve unless they look to some
standard or example higher or better than
themselves’.
• ‘Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than
anybody else expects of you; and never excuse
yourself, never pity yourself, but be your own hard
master and be lenient to everybody else’

INTRODUCTION
“… strategy must become extraordinary to create a new
mandate that … will change how the game is played
altogether” – Pitts (2016)

Background
• The effective realization of any plan or strategy
depends on how available resources are
perceived, harnessed and allocated to relevant
components by the various levels of
organizational leadership.
• Strategy implementation is the realization of
formulated strategies for attainment of set goals
involving all levels of the leadership cadre.
• Strategic leadership cuts across the top, middle
and lower of strategy for the purpose of
formulation, translation and execution.

Challenge of Leadership
• Challenges facing leadership in strategy
implementation are often hinged on concept
and practice difficulties.
• These operational dimensions also translate
and apply strategy implementation process
differently therefore affecting entire
organizational and resource management.
• This paper deals with organizational and
resource dimensions in strategy
implementation aimed at achieving great
strategy for great performance

Literature Trend
• Strategy-related literature has generally gone
through rapid transformation and adaption from
classical military application to contemporary
organizational studies and practice (Mitchell, 1996;
Acur & Englyst, 2006; Li, Guohu & Eppler, 2008; Bordean, et
al. 2010).
• General literature on factors influencing strategy
implementation indicates insufficient attention
given to understanding leading to conceptual
inadequacy in practical application (Li, Guohu &
Eppler, 2008).
• These adaptations avail to the need for clear
conceptualization of strategy implementation later
in this present.

Theorem
• Theories of organization in strategic context
tend to demonstrate compatibility on how
entities are used; viewed as purposeful
structures; and focused as set of tasks and
actions (Douma & Schreuder, 2013).
• Theories of strategy or theories of action
associated with strategy implementation flow
along conceptual transition overtime.
• This paper stands on the integrative
framework for theory of strategy seen as
strategic control for ultimate implementation
and performance.

Problem Statement
• As leadership of organizations harnesses
resources in series of decisions and actions, it is
often difficult to grasp, understand and control
what goes around in complex activities.
• The strategic management process and strategy
formulation remain useless without putting them
into use, strategy implementation is therefore an
essential part of the entire strategic cycle.
• Strategy implementation is the critical stage of
complex cross-functional relationships of
organizational components found in the strategic
management process.

Objectives of the Paper
• To conceptualize strategy implementation and
control, inspiration, great strategy, great
performance and national health policy of
Nigeria 2016;
• To discuss and correlate organizational and
resource dimensions in strategy
implementation;
• To establish strategy implementation as
anchorage for strategic control, great strategy,
and great performance; and
• To itemize the attributes of a great strategy, and
how to turn great strategy into great
performance

Strategy Implementation
• Implementation is the process of carrying out,
fulfilling, realization or execution of a task, an
application or a plan.
• Strategy implementation is the second stage task
after strategy formulation, involving the
application or execution of plans through series
of decisions and actions in pursue of set goals or
objectives.
• This task rests on the shoulders of organizational
leadership for communication of mission,
allocation of tasks and resources and
coordination of cross-functional relationships
(Brinkschroder, 2014)

Strategy Control
• Strategic control is the process used for control of
the formation and execution of strategic plans.
• It defers from the usual management or
operational controls with more attention given to
uncertainties and ambiguities encountered along
the way of strategy implementation (Reufli &
Sarrazin, 1981).
• It is particularly focused on attainment of long
term goals rather than short term objectives
based on review of performance. Strategy control
is also the ‘look out’ component of strategy
implementation signaling which way to go.

Inspiration
• Inspiration involves stimulation, encouragement,
motivation, galvanization, impassion or spurring
to action a group, team, followers or organization
for attainment of set goals (Aron, 2015).
• This is done through series of well-designed and
deliberate actions and events which influence
behavior, attitude and zeal of subordinates to
perform effectively and efficiently.
• This process of influence allows for leaders to
make followers or organizations to think, act and
deliver beyond the ordinary (Bass & Riggio, 2008;
Charland, 2016).
• Thus, inspiration is a formidable leadership tool
for creating extraordinary performance.

Great Strategy
• A great strategy “…must become extraordinary to
create a new mandate that … will chance how the
game is played altogether … requiring leadership
[able to achieve] extraordinary outcomes while
impacting the future picture” (Pitts, 2016, p. 106).
• The ten elements of strategy include critical
reflection; power of simple message; marathon
thinking; sense of reality; and the idea that less is
more.
• Others are balanced listening; actionable content;
energetic deployment; fanatic follow up; and living
and breathing the strategy (Hamalian, 2012).

Great Performance
• Great Performance demands strategies that can
help leaders reach beyond ordinary success by
increased effectiveness and efficiency for
achieving spectacular results (Cameron, 2012).
• It is measured on how well objectives are met
given internal and external factors influencing
available resource management (Ruben, 2003;
Davis, 2005).
• Great performance is attained through positive
leadership enabling positive climate, relationship,
communication and meaningful inspiration.

Nigeria’s National Health Policy 2016
• The World Health Organization defines health as
a state of complete physical, mental and social
wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity (WHO, 2006).
• Huber, et al. (2011) proposes the inclusion of the
ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of
social, physical and emotional challenges.
• The Nigerian National Health Policy 2016 has a
vision for universal health coverage; mission to
provide comprehensive framework for harnessing
resource; policy goal of strengthening Nigeria’s
health system; and policy thrust in good
governance and service delivery.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND RESOURCE
DIMENSIONS IN STRATEGY
IMPLEMENTATION

Organizational Dimension
• Challenges facing organizational leadership in
strategy implementation often hinge on concept and
practice in which the exercise is performed outside
strategic context in search of greater strategy and
performance (Crosby, 1996).
• For effective implementation of strategy,
organizational leadership should know which lever to
pull and which button to press in order to improve
overall performance.
• It is critical for organizational leadership at all levels
to possess the ability to anticipate, envision,
maintain flexibility and empowers others to create
strategic change.

Resource Dimension
• Strategy implementation is “the match an
organization makes between its internal resources
and skills and the opportunities and risks created by
its external environment” (Grant, 2001, p. 114).
• The resource dimension of organization is critical to
the attainment of set goals or mission. Resources are
measured and managed under main categories of
human, financial, technological, environmental, and
natural resources.
• These categories of resources often determine
functional structures of organizations seen in
departmental attributes like human resource, finance
and works depending on mission set.

Strategy Implementation and Control for
Great Performance
• Strategy implementation involving the application or
execution of plans through series of decisions and
actions requires close control against uncertainties
and ambiguities in order to arrive at set goals or
objectives.
• The responsibilities of leadership at this stage include
clear and simple communication of mission,
allocation of tasks and resources, and coordination of
cross-functional relationships.
• In this way, it is easier to focus on attainment of long
term goals in addition to short term objectives based
on review of performance.

HOW LEADERS CREATE GREAT STRATEGY
AND INSPIRE GREAT PERFORMANCE

How Leaders Create Great Strategy
• Attributes of great strategy are seen through the
meeting of challenges in selecting, combining,
and effectively implementing the appropriate
combination of strategic approaches, otherwise
known as the strategy collage.
• This involves leaders in the process of adjusting
to dynamically circumstances of change by taking
critical overarching roles in animating the strategy
collage.
• Leadership, here has eight roles to play including
diagnosing, segmentation, disruption, team
coaching, salesmanship, inquisition, scanning,
and acceleration.

Transforming People for Better Performance
• The Transformational Leadership Report
(2007) quoted Steve Covey stating that the
goal of leadership is to “transform” people
and organizations in a literal sense; to change
them in mind and heart; enlarge vision,
insight, and understanding.
• The Report further seeks to clarify purposes;
make behaviour congruent with beliefs,
principles, or values; and bring about changes
that are permanent, self-perpetuating, and
momentum building.

How Leaders Inspire Great Performance
• The American Management Association (AMA)
also tasks leaders to assess strengths and lead by
example to rise to challenges; inject passion and
sense of purpose to spark creativity and
innovation; inspire the team to reach and strive
for greater performance on their own; cultivate a
culture where followers want to become leaders;
and create and articulate vision for the future.
• The AMA further advised on continuous
evaluation style; exploration of skills; assessment
of responsibility level; making adjustments and
developing process for enhancing competencies;
monitoring of progress by milestones; developing
adaption process for team’s culture; and creating
adjustment action plans.

Leadership and the Passion for Great
Performance
• The leader must have passion for extraordinary
or great performance backed by unceasing zeal to
inspire for good, better and the best.
• In the words of Tim Duncan, it is “Good better
best, never let it rest, until your good is better,
and your better is best” www.goodreads.com/quotes.
• This narrative ascribes routine approach or work
habit on how to inspire great performance
towards the attainment of vision and mission
statement.

Turning Great Strategy into Great
Performance
• Turning great strategy into great performance
starts with getting the core idea right and
putting the idea to work with all your might
and all your guts (Mankins & Steele, 2005).
• In determining the best strategy approach for
great strategy and performance, the
environment must be scanned for critical
components in getting things right (Reeves,
Haanes, & Sinha, 2015).

Conclusion
• Strategy implementation poses the toughest
challenges to leadership as its philosophy and
practice are uplifted, expanded and embolden
organizations to venture into systematic planning
and execution, hitherto known only to the military in
the past.
• Organizational leadership at all levels should aspire
not only to acquire knowledge and skills but also
expand strategic faculties as agents of change.
• It is strongly recommended that Participants of the
NIPSS-PSLC course should cultivate and absorb the
attributes of strategic thinking and action for strategy
implementation on how to turn great strategy into
great performance.

SIMULATION EXERCISE FOR NIPSS-PSLC 27 ON
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND TURNING
GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT PERFORMANCE

Background
A Simulation Exercise is designed for the NIPSS-
PSLC 27 Participants to put what they
understanding about ‘strategy implementation:
turning great strategy into great performance’
into practice on the implementation of Nigeria’s
National Health Policy 2016.

Brief Profile on the National Health Policy 2016
• Vision for universal health coverage;
• Mission to provide comprehensive
framework for harnessing resource;
• Policy goal of strengthening Nigeria’s
health system;
• Policy thrust in good governance and
service delivery.

The Exercise
Participants in groups are to work out the following
challenges of leadership on the National Health
Policy and report to the Whole House:
1. Create a Great Strategy for implementation of
the National Health Policy as profiled above; and
2. How do you inspire the government, the health
sector and general public for a Great
Performance of the National Health Policy?

A
BIG
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND LISTENING

Reference
Acur, N. & Englyst, L. (2006). Assessment of strategy formulation: How to ensure quality in process and outcome. International
Journal of Operations and Production Management, 26(1), 69-91
Aron, W. (2015), Frontiers in psychology, performance science, and scope. Journal of Frontiers in Psychology. Retrieved from
http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology/section/performance-science#about 22/8/16
Bass, B.M. & Riggio, R.E. (2006), Transformational leadership (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bass, B.M. & Riggio, R.E. (2008), Transformational leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Bordean, O., Borza, A., Rus, C & Mitra, C. (2010). An investigation on the strategy formulation process within the Roman
companies. Managerial Challenges of the Contemporary Society. Proceedings, 26-31
Bryman, A. (1992), Charisma and leadership in organizations. London, UK: Sage
Cameron, K. (2012), Positive leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koeler
Charland, D. (2016), Webmaster@leadership-central. Retrieved from http://www.leadership-central.com/leadership-
theories.html#axzz4Hitkpswn 18/8/16
Crosby, B. L. (1996). Organizational dimension to the implementation of policy change, IPC Monograph, No. 2, September.
Davis, A.J. (2005), The philosophy of inspiration. Whitefish, MT: Kissinger Publishing
Dess, G. G. (2006). Consensus on strategy formulation and organizational performance: Competitors in a fragmented industry.
Strategic Management Journal, November 8. DOI: 10.1002/smj.4250080305
Douma, S. & Schreuder, H. (2013). Economic approaches to organizations (5th Edition). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited
Egelhoff, W. G. (1993). Great strategy or great strategy implementation: Two ways to of competing in global markets. MIT Sloan
Management Review, January 15. Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/great-strategy-or-great-strategy-
implementation-two-ways-of-competing-in-global-markets/ 12/7/17
Grant, R. M. (2001). The resourced-base theory of competitive advantage: Implications for strategy formulation. California
Management Review, Spring

Guth, W. D. & Macmillan, I. C. (1986). Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest. Strategic Management
Journal, 7, 313-327
Hamalian, J. S. (2012). 10 elements of a great strategy. Process Excellence Network, July 3. Retrieved from
https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/articles/10-elements-of-a-great-strategy 12/7/17
Huber, et al. (2011). How should we define health? BMJ. Doi: 10.1136/bmj.d4163. Retrieved 12/7/17
Li, Y., Guohu, S. & Eppler, M. J. (2008). Making strategy work: A literature review on factors influencing strategy implementation.
ICA Working Papers 2/2008, Institute for Corporate Communication, Lugano, Switzerland
Mankins, M. C. & Steel, R. (2005). Turning great strategy into great performance. Harvard Business Review, July-August. Retrieved
from http://www.hbr.org 12/717
Mitchell, R. C. (2009). Strategy formulation. [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/BUS300-2.3_Strategy-Formulation.pdf. 10 April 2016
Penegar, B. (n. d.). What makes a great strategy?. AdventureNotes: The Blog of Brett Pinegar. Retrieved from
https://brettpinegar.com/great-strategy/ 12/7/17
Pitts, D. D. (2016). Go slow to go fast – planning to execution – tools to disrupt incumbent strategy and behavior to win your
competitive landscape. New York, NY: Morgan James Publishing
Reeves, M., Haanaes, K., & Sinha, J. (2015). Your strategy needs a strategy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press
Reufli, T. & Sarrazin, J. (1981). Strategic control of corporate development under ambiguous circumstances. Management Science.
27 (10): 1158–1170. DOI:10.1287/mnsc.27.10.1158.
Ruben, D. (2003), Action and its explanation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
The American Management Association (AMA), (2016) Retrieved from
http://www.amanet.org/training/seminars/Transformational-Leadership-How-to-Inspire-Extraordinary-Performance.aspx 22/8/16
The Transformational Leadership Report (2007) Retrieved from http://www.trasformationalleadership.net 22/8/16
WHO (2006). Constitution of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf 12/7/17

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: TURNING GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT PERFORMANCE

More Related Content

What's hot (19)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: TURNING GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT PERFORMANCE (20)

More from TANKO AHMED fwc (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION: TURNING GREAT STRATEGY INTO GREAT PERFORMANCE