Strategy Implementation Notes
325088-M-6
2021/2022
WEEK 1
Lecture 1
Scope
● Strategic planning
○ Strategic planning is the process of deciding on the programs that the organization
will undertake and on the approximate amount of resources that will be allocated to
each program over the next several years (Anthony and Govindarajan, 2007)
○ Focus: not about strategy formulation but about strategy implementation
● Strategic management process
● From creation to implementation
Coherence
● Alignment for implementation
Complexity
1
,Kotter (2007): Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.
● Mistakes
○ Not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
○ Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
○ Lacking a vision
○ Under Communicating the vision by a factor of ten
○ Not removing obstacles to the new vision
○ Not systematically planning for a creating short term wins
○ Declaring victory too soon
○ Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture
● Eight steps to transforming your organization
○ 1. Establishing a sense of urgency
■ Examining market and competitive realities
■ Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises or major opportunities
○ 2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition
■ Assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort
■ Encouraging the group to work together as a team
○ 3. Creating a vision
■ Creating a vision to help direct the change effort
■ Developing strategies for achieving that vision
○ 4. Communicating the vision
■ Using every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
■ Teaching new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
○ 5. Empowering others to act on the vision
■ Getting rid of obstacles to change
■ Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
■ Encouraging risk taking and non traditional ideas, activities and actions
○ 6. Planning for and Creating Short term wins
■ Planning for visible performance improvements
■ Creating those improvements
■ Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements
○ 7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
■ Using increased credibility to change systems, structures and policies that
don’t fit the vision
2
, ■ Hiring, promoting and developing employees who can implement the vision
■ Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change agents
○ 8. Institutionalizing new approaches
■ Articulating the connections between the new behaviors and corporate
success
■ Developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession
Raffaelli (2017): Organizational Behaviour Reading: Leading Organizational Change
● It is about the key choices leaders must make when managing a change and the common traps
that can cause a change effort to fail
● Organized in four sections:
○ Diagnosis: why is change needed?
■ Performance gaps: difference between expected and actual performance
■ Opportunity gaps: potential future problems or missed value creating
opportunities the organization will face if it does not act today
○ Design: what sort of change is called for?
■ Four critical elements of change design and implementation (SORT)
● 1. Scope of change
○ Radical vs Incremental
■ Radical change: affect nearly all aspects of the
organization
■ Incremental: small adjustments to the existing
organizational systems
● 2. Origin of change
○ Top down vs bottom up
■ Top down: clear directives, goals, communication
plans. Requires buy in from the management team
■ Bottom up: emerges from within the organization
and can look quite different across multiple
businesses units depending on how it gets started
● Type of change based on scope and origin decisions
○ Delivery: how can change best be implemented? Who will most likely be affected?
What skills and support do leaders need as they manage the process?
■ 3. Rollout of change
3
, ● Systemwide vs localized
○ Systemwide changes are rolled out across multiple units or
subunits simultaneously
○ Localized change: implementing the change in specific units
of the organization one by one until it reaches all areas
■ 4. Timing of change
● Fast vs slow
○ Fast changes implemented within a finite period of time
○ Slow changes are implemented over an extended period or
may go on indefinitely
■ Implementation
● Kotter eight step model
■ Getting others on board
○ Evaluation: how can the impact of the change be assessed and measured?
○ Stakeholder map
4
325088-M-6
2021/2022
WEEK 1
Lecture 1
Scope
● Strategic planning
○ Strategic planning is the process of deciding on the programs that the organization
will undertake and on the approximate amount of resources that will be allocated to
each program over the next several years (Anthony and Govindarajan, 2007)
○ Focus: not about strategy formulation but about strategy implementation
● Strategic management process
● From creation to implementation
Coherence
● Alignment for implementation
Complexity
1
,Kotter (2007): Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.
● Mistakes
○ Not establishing a great enough sense of urgency
○ Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
○ Lacking a vision
○ Under Communicating the vision by a factor of ten
○ Not removing obstacles to the new vision
○ Not systematically planning for a creating short term wins
○ Declaring victory too soon
○ Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture
● Eight steps to transforming your organization
○ 1. Establishing a sense of urgency
■ Examining market and competitive realities
■ Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises or major opportunities
○ 2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition
■ Assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort
■ Encouraging the group to work together as a team
○ 3. Creating a vision
■ Creating a vision to help direct the change effort
■ Developing strategies for achieving that vision
○ 4. Communicating the vision
■ Using every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
■ Teaching new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
○ 5. Empowering others to act on the vision
■ Getting rid of obstacles to change
■ Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
■ Encouraging risk taking and non traditional ideas, activities and actions
○ 6. Planning for and Creating Short term wins
■ Planning for visible performance improvements
■ Creating those improvements
■ Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements
○ 7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
■ Using increased credibility to change systems, structures and policies that
don’t fit the vision
2
, ■ Hiring, promoting and developing employees who can implement the vision
■ Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change agents
○ 8. Institutionalizing new approaches
■ Articulating the connections between the new behaviors and corporate
success
■ Developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession
Raffaelli (2017): Organizational Behaviour Reading: Leading Organizational Change
● It is about the key choices leaders must make when managing a change and the common traps
that can cause a change effort to fail
● Organized in four sections:
○ Diagnosis: why is change needed?
■ Performance gaps: difference between expected and actual performance
■ Opportunity gaps: potential future problems or missed value creating
opportunities the organization will face if it does not act today
○ Design: what sort of change is called for?
■ Four critical elements of change design and implementation (SORT)
● 1. Scope of change
○ Radical vs Incremental
■ Radical change: affect nearly all aspects of the
organization
■ Incremental: small adjustments to the existing
organizational systems
● 2. Origin of change
○ Top down vs bottom up
■ Top down: clear directives, goals, communication
plans. Requires buy in from the management team
■ Bottom up: emerges from within the organization
and can look quite different across multiple
businesses units depending on how it gets started
● Type of change based on scope and origin decisions
○ Delivery: how can change best be implemented? Who will most likely be affected?
What skills and support do leaders need as they manage the process?
■ 3. Rollout of change
3
, ● Systemwide vs localized
○ Systemwide changes are rolled out across multiple units or
subunits simultaneously
○ Localized change: implementing the change in specific units
of the organization one by one until it reaches all areas
■ 4. Timing of change
● Fast vs slow
○ Fast changes implemented within a finite period of time
○ Slow changes are implemented over an extended period or
may go on indefinitely
■ Implementation
● Kotter eight step model
■ Getting others on board
○ Evaluation: how can the impact of the change be assessed and measured?
○ Stakeholder map
4
