How to turn strategy into an implementation plan

From an approved strategy to specific initiatives

Board approval establishes the direction of the business. The next task is to agree what each team must do, how the work fits together and which commitments management can make with the people and funding available.

Zenith’s Implementing Strategy guide organises this work around planning, team structure, and process and tools. This article applies that framework to the guide’s example of expanding into new markets with a wider product range. The detailed scenario below is illustrative.

Break the strategy into initiatives with identifiable outputs. In the expansion example, management needs an assessment of the target market, a value proposition suited to those customers and a plan for supplying and supporting the new range. The initiatives can progress in parallel where their dependencies allow.

Some decisions will affect several initiatives. The product team needs the customer requirements established by the market assessment. Operations needs to know the range and service promise before confirming stock, systems and staffing. Put those dependencies into the plan so that each team knows what it needs from the others.

A plan for each initiative

The guide sets out the components of an initiative plan. The useful test is whether the plan gives its sponsor and delivery team enough information to agree the work, commit resources and assess progress. A broad instruction to expand the business leaves those decisions unresolved.

People with the authority and time to deliver

The sponsor oversees delivery, contributes expertise and removes obstacles. The initiative lead coordinates the work and maintains the plan. The team needs to know which decisions it can make and which require the sponsor or steering group. In a smaller initiative, one person may perform more than one role.

Resource commitments need to reflect the day job. If the finance manager is required to model the expansion, complete the annual budget and support another initiative at the same time, the plan contains a capacity conflict. Management must phase the work, change priorities or provide additional help before those commitments become missed milestones.

The guide recommends a CEO-led steering group bringing together the key functional sponsors. That gives decisions spanning sales, operations, finance and IT a clear forum. Initiative teams continue to manage the detailed work, with issues brought to the group when they require coordination or authority beyond the team.

Measures of delivery and financial benefit

The plan needs to show both whether the agreed work has been completed and whether the expected benefits are emerging. For the expansion, delivery milestones might include an approved product range, a tested ordering process and a trained service team. The commercial measures cover sales, gross margin and the cost of serving the new customers.

Agree the baseline, the assumptions behind the expected benefit, who will provide the figures and when management will review them. Where several initiatives contribute to the same result, agree how the combined benefit will be assessed so it is counted once.

A launch can finish on schedule while customer take-up falls short. The reporting process should make that visible. Management can then examine the offer, pricing or service model and revise the next stage of investment using the evidence available.

A reporting cycle that leads to decisions

The guide’s reporting cycle starts with a review of the work ahead. Initiative leads update their trackers, and the project management office brings the updates into a consolidated report. That report gives the steering group a view of progress, upcoming commitments and problems requiring its attention.

Keep the update proportionate to the initiative. A useful report identifies what has changed, the effect on delivery or benefits, and the response required. The team should be able to maintain it as part of managing the work. The example below shows how an ordering-system delay could move through that process.

Readiness to begin implementation

Before the program starts, review the initiative plans together. Management should be able to confirm that:

• The initiatives collectively cover the changes required by the strategy, with their dependencies identified.
• Each sponsor and initiative lead understands the result they are accountable for and the decisions they can make.
• People and funding have been allocated against realistic workloads and timing.
• Milestones and benefit measures have agreed baselines, owners and review dates.
• The reporting cycle gives the steering group enough time and information to resolve delivery problems.

The Implementing Strategy report provides the framework, initiative-plan components and reporting examples to use in that discussion. Zenith’s strategy implementation service helps management develop the plans and reporting process with the people responsible for delivery.