What a failing vacuum cleaner retailer teaches us about strategy
Godfreys was a specialist vacuum cleaner retailer (yes really). What lessons for strategy can we draw from its failure?
You’ve just put the finishing touches to your business strategy. You’ve spoken to customers, researched the key market segments, and projected the financials.
The Board and shareholders are aligned and agree on the priorities to take the business forward.
That was the easy part!
Translating a strategy into action is a significant challenge. All too often, the benefits that were promised are delivered late, or fail to materialise at all.
Management teams get distracted by the day-to-day challenges of running the business. Cross-functional initiatives fall between operating silos, budgets get reallocated and the initial momentum is lost.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
Despite strategy implementation being seen as a key priority by most senior executives, fewer than 15% of organisations consider themselves to be successful when it comes to executing strategy.
Estimates for strategy implementation failure rates range from 50% to 90%.
We have spent over twenty years helping clients translate strategy into action, working with a range of clients from start-ups through to large corporations and public sector organisations.
Through this, we have identified a number of key principles that can help you to avoid common implementation pitfalls.
By applying these principles, strategy implementation can be a more predictable, transparent and repeatable process.
The reasons for strategy implementation failures are complex and vary from organisation to organisation, but often include one or more of the following issues:
For the first time, insights from more than 20 years of experience in strategy implementation have been collated in this essential guide to turning strategy into action.
