40 expert tips for successful business and strategy execution 2022 (List)
40 expert tips to improve your strategy and business execution
Strategy and business execution is the implementation of a strategic plan in an effort to reach organisational goals. Sounds simple, right? Not quite!
90% of companies fail on some or all aspects of their businesses execution (including many of the experts below). To make sure you avoid making the same mistakes, we surveyed the experts for their 'top tips' on business and strategy execution success.
Think of the below 40 tips as a checklist - how many of thee below do you regularly think of?
- Without measurable and well-defined goals businesses will not succeed - Shay Hershkovitz, COO
- Leaders must be consistent, authentic, transparent, and clear in communication of strategy - Stephan Uhrenbacher, Co-founder
- It takes time to find a system that works for your organisation. Be patient but be obsessed about improving every cycle - Alex Miauton, Investor
- Keep an open mind to alternative solutions in the face of adversity - Dan Bachmann, CEO, SMEs
- Treat culture as a priority and support it with strong/regular talent review processes and absolutely manage bad behaviour fast - Roland Butler, Head of Product
- Ensure the top teams really do understand the strategy, and are completely aligned with the business plan - Peter Munro, CFO
- Ask why you do it the way you do from year to year and evolve - It's easy to do much of strategy through inertia/habit - Manar Hussain, Founder
- Communicate, communicate, communicate! - Stuart Hayes, Head of Data
- Be flexible and be human - Mohammad Chbib, Founder & CEO
- Harbour transparency and context on all levels. If people have the right information they are able to make right decisions - Amerikova Anastasia, Head of Product
- Move on from planning to doing as soon as possible - Shorful Islam, CEO
- Process is not an event that you can create and forget it for years, continuous improvement is a key - Ahmed Abdelrahman, CTO
- Documenting Strategy into a tool that enables periodical progress review and changes is a must - Shalom Passy, Corporate & Startup Veteran
- Do not rely on previous form and allow too much decentralised decision-making with new senior team members - Daniel Bridges, CEO
- Time on resourcing properly is never a waste - Daniel Bridges, CEO
- Strategy formulation can be done by a small group in management, but the execution really must belong to the whole business as a whole - Finance Director
- Check, check, and check again to make sure that everyone stays onboard with company goals - Martin Koningen, CEO
- Bring the right people onboard to the right seats, bring them in close and build an unwavering belief that they can deliver on the mission - Piers Mudd, CEO
- Start simpler and smaller that you think, then scale it out over time - Barry O’Reilly, Founder
- Have your North Star which everyone subscribes to and believes in - David Wilson, Head of Commercial Development
- Align individual and team objectives to company goals and make sure to resource accordingly - Ben Westcott, Head of Enhanced Weathering
- Start simple. Explain and explain again. Then empower and trust - Dominic Cameron, NED and Chairman
- The sooner the wider team understand the purpose of business execution the sooner they see how they are directly affecting things - Alistair Wilkinson, COO
- Lots of businesses rely on middle managers to interpret strategy and to set direction to their own teams. In order to execute more quickly and effectively, a well planned, communicated and tracked operating plan is key to success - Guy Lock, People and Operations Management/Change
- The best approach is a bunch of people in a room around a whiteboard. If the business is complicated, then maybe you'd add a dashboard. If people are distributed, then you need other tools - Neill Hunt, Strategy VP
- An organisations systems, culture, and structure must be aligned with the strategy for successful execution - Jonathan Hickey
- Get people in the right seat on the bus and replace people that do not want to focus on the mission - Frank Zijlstra, VP Finance Operations
- Set 3-5 goals max and pursue them with focus. Do not add or change them without clear supporting data and effective communication to others - Alex McKenzie
- Drop the ego and hubris that goes with position and title when constructing business strategy - Ross Boyd MBE, Leadership Coach
- Over communication is key, and reiteration of the key benefits and purpose - reiterate strategy until you're blue in the face - Chris Hulatt, Strategy Manager
- Trust that the leadership team understand their roles, remit, and goals. Disseminate and reiterate those points but allow them to execute in their own way - Euan Goodman, Head of CS
- Discipline in running the periodical review is the final stamp for Strategy Execution success - Shalom Passy, Corporate & Startup Veteran
- Stay 2-3 capital rounds ahead of your business, always developing and sustain strong external stakeholder relationships to draw capital - Daniel Bridges, CEO
- Ensure that execution becomes part of the culture - i.e. success is what defines the Team. Anything is possible after that - Piers Mudd, CEO
- Hire the right people with the right DNA and be prepared for challenges and to be challenged to achieve the end goal - David Wilson, Head of Commercial development
- Start with the rationale for goals, monitor performance, and communicate relentlessly throughout - Ben Westcott, Head of Enhanced Weathering, SME
- It’s important for the wider team to understand WHY the Senior Leadership Team are focussed on business execution - Alistair Wilkinson, COO
- Business execution is driven by clarity, alignment, and transparency between people - Neill Hunt, Strategy VP
- Clear goals, accountability, alignment and tracking are essential - Jonathan Hickey
- The role of leadership is to create more leaders - which allows the SLT to be on the front door, making decisions about the future, not firefighting the present - Euan Goodman, Head of CS
