31/01/2024 Marjut Alatalo Toimitusjohtaja, WayUp Oy.
A great deal of time and energy is often invested in crafting corporate strategy – which means it's also a costly process. That’s why I’m often surprised at how poorly many organizations manage to bring their strategies to life in day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, this isn’t just my own observation. A study conducted at the University of Vaasa found that only 13% of top management and 8% of middle management can articulate their company’s strategy as it is officially defined. Among employees, the number drops to just 2%.
1. Ensure a Shared Understanding
- The first step to successful strategy implementation is ensuring that everyone in the organization has a sufficiently aligned understanding of the strategy.
- Leadership plays a key role in this process. They must communicate and demonstrate the purpose, goals, and significance of the strategy to the entire organization.
- Regular briefings, training sessions, and open discussions can help ensure that every employee understands what the strategy means for me and in my role.
2. Embed the Strategy into Everyday Processes
- The strategy must be integrated into the everyday work of every employee.
- Goals, decision-making, and operational processes must be aligned with the strategic objectives. For example, performance metrics and reward systems should be designed to support the implementation of the strategy.
- Each team—and collaboration between teams—requires continuous monitoring and evaluation to ensure alignment with the strategic direction. Ongoing assessment enables quick responses and corrective actions when needed.
3. Lead by Engaging and Empowering Others
- For a strategy to come alive, it must be a participatory process.
- Every employee should feel that they have a role to play in executing the strategy. Leadership and managers can encourage participation and creativity by organizing, for example, workshops where employees can contribute to the development and/or practical application of the strategy.
- Even something as simple as regularly reviewing in team meetings which of our tasks best support the strategy—and how—can help the organization stay more aligned and focused.
Strategic work goes to waste if the strategy ends up as a document gathering dust on a shelf—or as a forgotten file. At the same time, the organization loses much-needed efficiency, which is something the entire Finnish economy depends on. When day-to-day operations drift for human reasons, the strategy loses its power. Without ongoing evaluation, we tend to operate on autopilot—prioritizing ad hoc tasks or those we personally enjoy, rather than focusing on what truly matters for achieving the strategy and goals. Another study supports this: a 10-year longitudinal study found that only 10% of managers actually operate in a way that aligns with the organization’s strategy and objectives.
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