Freedom of Information and Clear Decisions

I read a not so recent article on the hbr.org site today that talked about how most strategic changes are not properly executed because they don't solve the underlying issues present in an organization. This resonated with me because I have seen this time and time again how organizations make superficial changes to structure, incentives and targets, but don't ever truly understand what it takes to executre their chosen strategy.

The two largest elements the article focuses on is the free flow of informaiton throughout the organization and clear decision rules and authority. The free flow of information deals primarily with information from the customer touchpoints to the ultimate decision makers within the organization. Often the key data needed to make a decision is not easily accessible to the product, general management or executive team, which hinders decisions and future success. The two authors suggest the information silos should be broken down and the most decisions delegated to the areas closer to the customer toucpoints. In addition each team needs to know which areas they are clearly responsible for and what decisions are within their area of responsiblity.

While these two elements aren't the only drivers of successful execution they can go a long way to improving the success of the strategy implementation.