Strategy-Operations-People
Two very interesting sources for discussion on connecting strategy and execution. If you haven’t read Larry Bossidy’s book, Execution, you will find an interesting perspective on how to achieve this. Businessweek has executive summary available. He does a very good job of discussing the forces at work that makes executing strategy so important and so difficult today and provides a framework for getting there. Then, the key take away for me from the book, is the discussion of the three key processes of execution. He points out that many businesses treat their people, strategy, and operations processes as independent entities when in fact they are interdependent. Bossidy suggests it is the role of management to become intimately familiar with all three of these processes and to drive the alignment from the top.
The American Management Association’s Winter 2006-2007 Journal is all about the search for Strategic Alignment. In the article, How to get Strategic Alignment, they break the management challenges into Organizational Leadership, Operational Leadership, and People Leadership.
Both of these are worth the time to read through. Learning to align the interdependent aspects of strategy, process, and people in organizations driven by knowledge work and constant change is the top management challenge we face today. If you are still managing these in an ad-hoc or independent way, it is time to look for a systematic approach to achieving strategic alingment.