Effective strategy execution requires a blend of best practice

Much like a chef carefully prepares a selection of ingredients to create great food, the same thinking should apply to strategy execution when using the APMG product suite of guidances. There are numerous methodologies and product delivery frameworks available to support any organizations with their transformational change through strategy, benefits management and capital investment.

However, no one guide covers everything and it is necessary for individuals and organizations to understand how compatible and related guides work together to get a fuller picture. All too often, people look at the various industry best practice guides and see them, or worse, apply them only in isolation, without fully understanding how to integrate the related practices to optimize organizational performance.

As the first person in the world to simultaneously become a Strategy Implementation Institute Professional, Registered Better Business Cases Practitioner and Managing Benefits Practitioner with APMG, I can attest how each play an equal and important role in any programme or project. That is, how these industry best practices enable any organization to achieve clear line of sight, or simply successful strategy implementation through measured benefits realization using better business cases to underpin any investment proposal.

To highlight some of the pertinent points, the Strategy Implementation Institute has developed a simple-to-understand, step-by-step roadmap on HOW to implement strategy. The Roadmap was conceived since only 52% of organizations in 2020 achieved two-thirds of their own strategy objectives.

The Strategy Implementation Roadmap is circular as you can start anywhere. It consists of seven components required to be successful in strategy implementation:

However, it is the component of Financial Value that links with Managing Benefits by Steve Jenner and Better Business Cases. The purpose of this process is to identify the strategic programmes and projects that will lead to delivering the strategic objectives. Before investing in any proposal, an organization needs to be aware of the effort to implement the strategy. This understanding is needed before deciding to continue with any strategic initiative, or to select another one better suited to achieving the strategy. This understanding is best achieved through Better Business Cases using the Five Case Model, which iteratively assesses business justification prior to full investment in terms of:

1. The “strategic case” or the compelling case for change and holistic fit with wider organisation.
2. The “economic case” or best value for money in terms of benefits versus costs and risks.
3. The “commercial case” or an attractive deal to the market, which can be procured and is commercially viable.
4. The “financial case” or affordability with a confirmed funding source.
5. The “management case” or achievability in terms of program, project, risk, benefits, contract and change management as well as arrangements for independent gateway assurance. 

Managing Benefits by Steve Jenner, on the other hand, is the guidance that aligns benefits to strategy implementation through driver-based analysis. It ensures programmes and projects are benefits-led in the business case and that the organization integrates benefits with performance management.

Linking back to the Strategy Implementation Roadmap, tracking performance is an essential discipline as this component focuses on ensuring the organization has the right measures in place to manage the strategy implementation and the discipline to constantly review organizational performance. Both sets of guidance advise to do this through the use of balanced scorecards and strategy maps with measures for the four perspectives of financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth.

However, it’s important to note that the Strategy Implementation Roadmap is the only global product to also consider the broader need to adapt the business model to support successful strategy implementation through programmes and projects, rather than simply adapt to the environment.

With the age of technology and free information, I’ve learnt there are a host of ways to get educated with minimal outlay. One of the best sources is Praxis – a free, publicly available framework for the integrated management of projects, programmes and portfolios that undergoes continuous improvement through community feedback.

The Praxis Framework can be used to support the strategy implementation, particularly financial value to initially assess the suitability of projects and programmes for inclusion in the portfolio, and later maintain a beneficial and manageable mix of projects and programmes. Coincidently, the Praxis Framework also supports the Better Business Cases five case model.