A review of the literature reveals that the ability to execute strategy is more important than the quality of the strategy itself. Researchers indicate that despite the importance of the strategy execution process, far more research has been carried out into strategy formulation rather than into strategy execution. The literature shows that executives fail to execute up to 70 percent of their strategic initiatives, this research set out to explore the drivers and inhibitors of executing strategy. This research involved a qualitative study which consisted of in-depth, face-to-face interviews. A total of 25 executives were interviewed from a large South African financial institution. Content and frequency analysis were used to extract key constructs from the data obtained during the interview process. The outcome of this research has resulted in drivers and inhibitors critical to effective strategy execution being explicitly defined. The findings have been used to develop an empirically based framework which highlights six key factors which must be considered simultaneously in order to successfully execute strategy. These are: obtaining top executive commitment, generating engagement at all levels, communicating a clear, tangible strategy, cascading accountabilities, selecting the best people to drive key initiatives, and the ability to monitor and track progress. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of strategy execution in an organisation cannot be downplayed because without it the sustainability of the organisation is at stake. Merely having great strategies is not sufficient as the implementation is the key to direct the activities of the organisation. Middle management plays a central role in strategy execution and any disconnect between them and the top management is bound to lead to organisational failure of effective strategy execution. This research study was based on the role that middle management play in the execution of strategy at the Roads Authority (RA). Semi-structured interviews were used to interview ten middle managers of the organisation, who were randomly selected through purposive sampling. The findings reveal that middle management is failing to play the requisite role of interpreting and translating strategy into actions. The findings further indicate that there is a leadership disconnect between them and their supervisors. They are also facing challenges of questionable strategy alignment within the operations which is causing ineffective resource allocation. In addition, the results indicate that the enabling tools such as the performance management, business systems and allocation of resources are falling short of assisting middle managers in strategy implementation. Lastly, these findings can assist the case study organisation to understand the strategic transformation process at middle management level and to review it for improving and to take corrective actions. The research study was an explorative one and used a limited sample, hence it will be necessary to do further research to get more insights about the potential roles that middle management could play in strategy formulation and the contributions they currently make towards it. The findings of this study can also not be generalised as they are for use only by the case study organisation.

This research reports a case study conducted to determine whether the application of Simplicity as a military principle can assist a geographically dispersed organisation in executing strategy more effectively. An investigation was conducted into the main reasons why strategy execution is not fully effective in an identified geographical dispersed organisation. A survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify these inhibitors. A comparison with existing literature identified the 4 main requirements to effective strategy execution in this organisation. A review of the application of Simplicity in the military context was completed. A comprehensive literature review, integrated with semi-structured interviews with general staff in the South African Army identified military approaches to Simplicity and its impact on execution successes. A conceptual content analysis matched successful military approaches to Simplicity with the main drivers of ineffective strategy execution in the organisation. The output was strategy execution inhibitors in the organisation, with matched approaches to Simplicity from interviews with military professionals. The compilation of a specific model and tools for simplification was proposed for the organisation. The output was a model for strategy execution at all levels, with tools and techniques discussed to ensure the simplification of strategic objectives in execution. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Background: As the world is moving from an industrial to a digital one an increasingly important factor for companies has become their digital transformation. This, Industry 4.0, has brought forward a new set of challenges but conventional strategy-making has not been able to keep up with them, whilst considering that change, in practice, is difficult to implement. The strategy execution for digital transformation has therefore become increasingly important but the challenges faced has not been researched to a sufficient degree. Research question: What are the main challenges with strategy execution during a digital transformation process and how can they be managed? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find and describe the main challenges with strategy execution for digital transformation that has been experienced and or perceived by practitioners working in companies that are a part of a concern. These findings will be conceptualised out of which guiding principles will be created and presented.    Method: In this study a qualitative method has been used together with an abductive approach to reasoning. Semi-structured interviews have been performed with eight respondents chosen by a strategic selection for their knowledge about the studied field. Theoretical frame of reference: Theories about strategy execution, change-management, what a digital transformation is, and how it evolves as well as the activity-based process model have been put forward. Within digital transformation some earlier seen challenges that has been a basis for this research are discussed. Conclusions: An overall conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that the primary areas that have been looked at, i.e. strategy development; strategy execution and digital transformation, in themselves create challenges. Whether they are correlated with each other or would exist no matter the other factors cannot be discerned from the findings of this thesis, resulting in the fact that the results of the analysis while able to give a foundation and interpretive thoughts, are, in their nature, uncertain. This would mean that albeit an answer to the research question can be presented by the conceptualisation and guiding principles they should not be seen as general for any given population but rather as a description and analysis of the studied population.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-10-09T13:44:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ALLAN CABERLON FRANKE_.pdf: 1593877 bytes, checksum: f363d928dbc41f7efe2683eb0278e4f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-09T13:44:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ALLAN CABERLON FRANKE_.pdf: 1593877 bytes, checksum: f363d928dbc41f7efe2683eb0278e4f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-28 / Nenhuma / Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se o planejamento ou a execução da estratégia organizacional possui mais importância para geração de performance na opinião dos pesquisados, verificar quais os gaps na execução da estratégia e discutir fatores que impulsionam ou dificultam a execução. Esses objetivos são desenvolvidos no contexto das empresas de tecnologia da informação (TI) no estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Para responder esses objetivos foram realizadas entrevistas com executivos de empresas de TI no RS, bem como envio de questionários para as empresas desse universo. Além disso foi realizada pesquisa documental na base de dados da Associação das Empresas Brasileiras de Software e Serviços de Informática - Regional do RS (ASSESPRO-RS) visando identificar as empresas para compor o tamanho da amostra para ser utilizada na pesquisa, bem como pesquisa bibliográfica para orientar o trabalho. Em relação a relevância da execução, observou-se que a execução possui maior impacto na performance financeira do que o planejamento, além disso, o planejamento é uma etapa que as empresas aparentemente apresentam menos dificuldade. Também foi observado que tanto os entrevistados quanto os respondentes do survey identificaram a comunicação ineficaz da estratégia a todos os níveis da organização e monitoramento ineficaz como gaps organizacionais. Esses achados possuem similaridade com estudos prévios que utilizaram o mesmo survey adotado nesse trabalho. Os fatores que se fizeram presentes como maiores responsáveis por impulsionar a execução de estratégia nas respostas do survey e que também foram descritos como importantes pelos entrevistados são a monitorização da performance, o desenvolvimento das lideranças, comunicação da estratégia e desenvolvimento de plano de ação. Esses resultados podem indicar que a execução da estratégia é impulsionada principalmente pela capacidade de garantir o conhecimento da estratégia por todos os indivíduos da organização, informá-los o que é necessário ser feito para que a ela aconteça e fazer ajustes de acordo com as informações dos indicadores. / The objective of this research is to verify if strategy planning or execution is more relevant to organizations seeking performance considering the opinions of this study subjects, identify which gaps exist on strategy execution and discuss which factors help or hinder execution. These objectives were developed considering information technology (IT) companies located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). To answer these objectives the tools used were interviews with IT companies executives located in RS and surveys were also sent to these companies. Documental research were also conducted using the database of Associação das Empresas Brasileiras de Software e Serviços de Informática - Regional do RS (ASSESPRO-RS) which is the association of brazilian software and IT services companies, seeking to identify the companies needed to characterize this market, as well as bibliographic research to further enrich the research. Regarding the importance of strategy execution, results show that it has a bigger impact on financial performance than strategy planning, this seems to be explained by companies having less difficulty when planning strategy. Both the survey respondents and the interviewed executives identified ineffective communication regarding of the strategy to all the levels of the organization and ineffective monitoring as organizational gaps. These findings have similarities with previous research on the subject that used the same survey as the one used on this research. The factors that were identified as the most important for aiding execution, considering survey results and interviewed executives, were performance monitoring, leadership development, strategy communication and developing an action plan. These results can suggest that strategy execution is aided specially by the organization capacity of guaranteeing that all individuals know the strategy, inform these individuals what has to be done to make the strategy happen and make adjustments considering the information available on the indicators.

No description available.

Dans cette thèse, nous soutenons l'idée que les ressources cognitives disponibles pour l'exécution d'une stratégie dépendent non seulement de la personne et des exigences de la stratégie que nous allons exécuter, mais aussi des demandes propres à la stratégie qu'on vient d'exécuter. L'exécution d'une stratégie devrait alors être moins efficace lorsqu'elle suit une stratégie difficile (i.e., effets de difficulté séquentielle). Nous avons testé l'existence d'effets de difficulté séquentielle dans quatres expériences portant sur l'estimation calculatoire (i.e., estimer la solution de problèmes arithmétiques en arrondissant les opérandes). Nous avons observé une moindre efficacité d'exécution de la stratégie mixte sur des additions à deux chiffres (i.e., arrondir une opérande vers le bas et une opérande vers le haut) après avoir exécuté la stratégie d'arrondi supérieur, laquelle est la stratégie la plus difficile pour cette tâche. En outre, cet effet était davantage présent chez des personnes ayant une moindre capacité de mémoire de travail ainsi que chez des patients souffrant de la maladie d'Alzheimer. Ces résultats confirment l'existence d'effets de difficulté séquentielle stratégique. En outre, ils suggèrent que la capacité de mémoire de travail est impliquée. / In this thesis, we defend the notion that cognitive resources available for strategy execution do not only depend on the participant and current task demands but also on prior task demands. Strategy performance should thus be less efficient when the previous strategy was difficult (i.e., sequential difficulty effects). The notion of sequential difficulty effects was tested in four experiments with computational estimation (i.e., estimating the solution to arithmetic problems by rounding the operands). We found that execution of a mixed-rounding strategy on two-digit addition problems (i.e., rounding one operand down and one operand up) was less efficient after an easy rounding-down strategy than after a difficult rounding-up strategy. Moreover, the effect was stronger in individuals with less efficient working-memory capacity and in Alzheimer patients. These results confirm the existence of strategy sequential difficulty effects and suggest that working memory is involved.

[pt] A temática Estratégia vem sendo há muito debatida intensamente, tanto no meio acadêmico quanto empresarial. Empresas buscam cada vez mais estratégias diferenciadoras que lhes permitam construir um posicionamento competitivo distintivo que maximize seu desempenho. Contudo, o que se observa é que uma capacidade superior de execução da estratégia, que permita um forte alinhamento entre a intenção descrita no plano e as atividades e estruturas organizacionais, passa cada vez mais a assumir um espaço destacado na agenda estratégica das organizações. Perante este desafio, observa-se a existência de múltiplas barreiras a uma execução bem sucedida. Também se observam dimensões críticas bem como modelos de execução que alinhem elementos estruturais, comportamentais, de governança, funcionais e operacionais visando traduzir a estratégia em resultados. Este estudo teve como objetivo aprofundar o entendimento de quais são os fatores facilitadores e quais são os fatores dificultadores para a execução do plano estratégico, especificamente no contexto de empresas organizadas em sistemas de franquia. A estratégia de pesquisa foi baseada em estudos de múltiplos casos realizados em dois sistemas de franquia envolvendo cinco empresas: (a) sistema de franquias de bebidas não alcoólicas envolvendo uma franqueadora multinacional de grande porte, uma franqueada multinacional de grande porte e uma franqueada nacional de médio porte; (b) sistema de franquias de restaurantes envolvendo uma franqueadora nacional de grande porte e uma franqueada nacional de pequeno porte. Para tal utilizou-se análise documental e entrevistas em profundidade tanto com líderes quanto com gerentes das organizações. Os discursos foram analisados e categorizados de acordo com o objetivo do estudo, evidenciando aspectos que se apresentam mais intensamente para sistemas de franquia em seus desafios de execução da estratégia. / [en] The thematic strategy has long been debated extensively, both in academia and business. Companies are increasingly looking for differential strategies that allow a distinctive competitive positioning to maximize their performance. However, what is observed is that a superior ability to implement the strategy, which allows a strong alignment between the intent described in the plan and the activities and organizational structures, is increasingly assuming a prominent place in the strategic agenda of organizations. Faced with this challenge, we observe the existence of multiple barriers to successful implementation. It also notes critical dimensions and execution models that align structural elements, behavioral, governance, operational and functional in order to translate the strategy into results. This study aimed to deepen the understanding of what factors are facilitators and what are limiting the implementation of the strategic plan, specifically in the context of companies organized as franchise systems. The research strategy was based on multiple case studies conducted in two franchise systems involving five companies: (a) first a franchise system of non-alcoholic beverages involving a large multinational franchisor, a large multinational franchisee and a medium size national franchisee, (b) second a fast-food franchise system involving a national medium size franchisor and one small size national franchisee. For this research purpose we have used document analysis and interviews with both leaders and managers of the mentioned organizations. The reports were analyzed and categorized under the study objective, clear features that appear harder to franchise systems in their challenges of strategy execution.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-11-01T11:26:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Valeria Barbosa da Silva.pdf: 3414927 bytes, checksum: eddda5e6129db9df34291e4c2dea8ab0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-01T11:26:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Valeria Barbosa da Silva.pdf: 3414927 bytes, checksum: eddda5e6129db9df34291e4c2dea8ab0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-12 / Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo / Approaching the topic strategy sends us to an initial reflection about planning, and it can induce the manager to worry almost solely about diagnosis, analysis, positioning identification and the so-desired search for sustainable competitive advantage. However, this reflection also requires that some attention be drawn simultaneously to its execution, taking into account all of its unfolding aspects and obstacles to be overcome. In this study, the main goal was to identify the obstacles that take strategies with high potential of success to not reach the desired outcome. For this purpose, correlated topics have been identified and they deserve full attention in order that formulation and execution take place effectively. It is also relevant to highlight complexity, different ways to approach strategy, tools for management and the role of managers. In the beginning, the available literature about the topics mentioned was screened and the findings only reinforce the idea that the topic strategy ought to be focused. Strategy execution is not as representative as strategy formulation. Even so, it was possible to put these studies together, showing clearly that authors focus on them. Based on the available literature and on these studies, a case study was elaborated. The case is one of a blue-chip Brazilian Financial Institution that uses the Balanced Scorecard as a tool to support the Strategic Management, in which a research by Hrebiniak (2006 and 2008) was replicated. In this study, 1020 questionnaires were sent, with a number of 380 respondents. The analysis of the replies has brought not only confirmation of Hrebiniak’s conclusions (2006 and 2008), but it has also added new approaching points. The obstacle concerning the difficulties in overcoming the challenge in communication presented a prominent position too / Abordar o assunto estratégia remete a refletir inicialmente sobre planejar e pode induzir o gestor a se preocupar, quase que exclusivamente, com diagnósticos, análises, identificação de posicionamentos e a busca pela tão almejada vantagem competitiva sustentável. Porém, essa reflexão necessita também que se designe atenção de maneira simultânea à sua execução com todos os seus desdobramentos e obstáculos a serem superados. No presente estudo, o objetivo foi de identificar os obstáculos que levam estratégias com potencial de sucesso a não atingirem os resultados esperados. Para isso, foram identificados assuntos correlatos que merecem atenção para que essa formulação e execução aconteçam de modo eficaz. Aqui, destacam-se temas como complexidade, modos diversos de se pensar estratégia, ferramentas na gestão e papel dos gestores. Inicialmente foi pesquisada a literatura disponível sobre os temas citados que se entende como fundamental ao abordar o assunto estratégia. O assunto execução estratégica ainda não apresenta uma significativa literatura como ocorre com formulação estratégica. Mesmo assim, foi possível reunir pesquisas de autores que já demonstram foco no assunto. Com base na literatura encontrada e nessas pesquisas, foi elaborado um estudo de caso em uma representativa Instituição Financeira Brasileira que utiliza o Balanced Scorecard como ferramenta de apoio à Gestão Estratégica, na qual fora replicada a pesquisa de Hrebiniak (2006 e 2008) que aborda especificamente os obstáculos a serem superados na execução de planos organizacionais. Nesse estudo de caso foram enviados 1020 questionários com um retorno de 380 respondentes. A análise das respostas trouxe, em parte, a confirmação das conclusões de Hrebiniak (2006 e 2008), mas também acrescentou novos pontos de abordagem. O obstáculo referente à dificuldade em superar o desafio da comunicação apresentou grande destaque

[pt] A capacidade para sobreviver e prosperar de uma empresa depende em grande medida, da seleção e execução de sua estratégia. Ainda existem poucos estudos científicos relacionados ao tema execução da estratégia. A literatura acadêmica sobre como conceituar e medir o construto execução da estratégia é escassa. A maior parte do material publicado sobre o construto vem de reflexões oriundas de alguns estudos de consultoria ou de trabalhos orientados à prática. Contudo, a fim de se desenvolver teoria a respeito dos antecedentes e das consequências deste construto chave, é preciso contar-se com definições conceituais bem fundamentadas e medidas operacionais validadas. Neste estudo, é apresentada uma proposta de modelagem do domínio conceitual e operacional do construto execução da estratégia, composta por dois modelos: o modelo conceitual e o modelo operacional. Ambos foram desenvolvidos a partir de uma abordagem qualitativa que envolveu interação entre literatura, julgamento de especialistas acadêmicos e opiniões de executivos de topo. O modelo conceitual desenvolvido é composto por sete dimensões. As relações de causalidade entre as sete dimensões e o construto sugerem que alterações em cada uma das dimensões causariam alterações no construto, caracterizando uma perspectiva formativa. O modelo operacional foi composto de 27 indicadores distribuídos entre as sete dimensões conceituais da execução da estratégia. Todas as dimensões apresentaram, pelo menos, três indicadores cada. Tanto o modelo conceitual quanto o respectivo modelo operacional desenvolvidos neste estudo devem ser considerados preliminares e deverão vir a ser testados empiricamente e refinados em futuros estudos. / [en] The ability of a company to survive and thrive depends mainly on the selection and execution of its strategy. However, there are few scientific studies related to the topic of strategy execution. The academic literature on how to conceptualize and measure the strategy execution construct is scarce. Most of the material published about the construct comes from consulting studies or practitioner-works. However, in order to develop theory about the antecedents and the consequences of this construct it is to have a sound conceptual delimitation and a set of validated operational measures. In this study, the domain map of the strategy execution construct is thoroughly investigated and two models are advanced: the conceptual model and the operational model. Both models were developed from a qualitative approach which interaction between the literature, the judgment of academic experts and the encompassed opinions of senior executives. The conceptual model advanced here is composed of seven dimensions. The causal relationships between each of the seven dimensions and the construct indicate that changes in one dimension cause change in the construct, suggesting a formative perspective. The operational model is composed of 27 indicators distributed across the seven conceptual dimensions of strategy execution. All dimensions had at least three indicators each. Both the conceptual and the operational model should be regarded as preliminary, pending empirical validation and refinement in future studies.