See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: [Link]

net/publication/223596456

Building a capable organization: The eight levers of strategy

implementation

Article in Business Horizons · July 2008

DOI: 10.1016/[Link].2008.02.003

CITATIONS
READS
76
5,438

2 authors:

Victoria Crittenden William F. Crittenden

Babson College Northeastern University
113 PUBLICATIONS 2,060 CITATIONS 69 PUBLICATIONS 1,821 CITATIONS

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Pedagogy / Teaching View project

Corporate Governance View project

All content following this page was uploaded by William F. Crittenden on 28 January 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Business Horizons (2008) 51, 301—309

[Link]/locate/bushor

Building a capable organization: The eight levers of

strategy implementation
Victoria L. Crittenden a,*, William F. Crittenden b

a
Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Fulton Hall 450B, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill,
MA 02467, U.S.A.
b
College of Business Administration, 101 Hayden Hall, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A.

KEYWORDS
Strategy; Abstract The habitual mode of poor strategy implementation shaping the next round of
Implementation; strategy formulation weakens the subsequent planning cycle. Unfortunately, decades of
Managerial levers; company interactions consisting of research, teaching, and consulting suggest that strategy
Performance implementation has become a catchall of phrases and recom- mendations, with little
clarity as to what comprises this necessary cornerstone of a capable organization.
Strategists tend to use powerful terminology when referring to implementation efforts.
Descriptors such as killers, confrontation, and engagement are linked with actions like
conquering, blocking, tackling, and honing when discuss- ing strategy implementation. Our
contention is that implementation is a critical cornerstone or ally in the building of a
capable organization, and the use of the appropriate levers of implementation is the
pivotal hinge in the development of the organization. Ultimately, strategy implementation
helps create the future, not inhibit it.
# 2008 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

If you give me a lever and a place to stand, I shall this strategy-to-performance gap, in part, to the fact
move the earth. Archimedes (287—212 BC) that 95% of a company’s employees are not aware of
or do not understand their company’s strategy.
1. Implementation: The gap between According to Johnson (2004), however, 66% of
corporate strategy is never implemented. This
formulation and performance suggests that the problem lies somewhere in the
middle of this strategy-to-performance gap, with a
Mankins and Steele (2005) report companies realize only
more likely source being a gap in the formulation- to-
63% of the financial performance promised by their
implementation process. If employees lack knowl-
strategies. Kaplan and Norton (2005) attribute
edge about the company’s strategy, it is unlikely that
proper implementation will occur, which in turn leads
* Corresponding author. to poor financial performance.
E-mail addresses: [Link]@[Link] Bonoma and Crittenden (1988) suggested that this
(V.L. Crittenden), [Link]@[Link] (W.F. Crittenden). habitual mode of poor strategy execution then

0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2008 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/[Link].2008.02.003
302 V.L. Crittenden, W.F. Crittenden

shapes the next round of strategy formulation, Strategists tend to use powerful terminology to
thus weakening the strategy formulated describe the importance of implementation. Beer
subsequently. Without a doubt, the overall and Eisenstat (2000) use terminology such as killers,
neglect of strategy implementation leads to poor confrontation, and engagement. Mankins and
performance both in the current execution and in Steele (2005) refer to conquering the gap between
future strategy formulation processes. Unless strategy and performance, and offer tactical
caught in time, the endless formulation- spec- ificity for conquering the formulation-
implementation-performance cycle leads to implementa- tion-performance process: keep it
subsequent attempts at implementing a mistaken simple/make it concrete, debate assumptions/not
strategy. When this occurs, it is hard to tell if forecasts, use a rigorous framework/speak a
weak performance is due to good implemen- common language, discuss resource deployment
tation of a bad strategy, or the result of poor early, clearly identify priorities, continuously
implementation of a good strategy. monitor performance, and reward/develop
Unfortunately, decades of research, teaching, execution capabilities. It is as though strategy
and consulting interactions with companies implementation requires strategic warfare.
suggest that strategy implementation has become Others, such as Porter and Harper (2003), use
a catch- all of phrases and recommendations, sports phrases such as blocking and tackling, and
with little clarity as to what comprises this suggest that managers must hone their imple-
necessary corner- stone of a capable organization. mentation skills.
The catchall tends to boil down to rules or Our contention is that strategy implementation
piecemeal components of implementation, is not an opponent that needs to be conquered or
usually with implementation be- ing a necessary tackled. Rather, strategy implementation is a crit-
but evil component, rather than an overarching ical cornerstone and ally in the building of a
framework for guiding the implemen- tation capable organization, and the use of the appropri-
process. This transformation means the questions ate levers of implementation will be the pivotal
must change: What actually constitutes strategy hinge in the development of that organization. As
implementation? Is strategy implementa- tion an such, we offer eight levers of strategy implemen-
opponent, or can it be an ally for the tation.
organization? The ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes
(287—212 BC) suggested that levers make work
1.1. Strategy implementation: easier by using a fulcrum to magnify one’s effort
Opponent or ally? against a force or resistance. Building upon earlier
implementation work by Bonoma and Crittenden
Over the years, management strategists have of- (1988), in conjunction with Thompson, Gamble,
fered considerable advice regarding strategy and Strickland’s (2006) strategy execution process,
imple- mentation. Beer and Eisenstat (2000) our framework brings together critical structural
attempt to capture much of this advice in their and managerial skill levers necessary for the
description of the six silent killers of strategy build- ing of a capable organization. While this
implementation, with the idea being that does not suggest that all eight levers are
managers who confront these killers, rather than necessary for suc- cessful strategy
using avoidance or mana- gerial replacement implementation, the identification of the levers
techniques, could overcome them and therefore allows companies to identify strong and weak
become a capable organization. The six silent points that could impact the implementation
killers were identified as process.
1. Top-down or laissez-fair senior management 1.2. Strategy research:
style, Organizational stories
2. Unclear strategy and conflicting priorities, Data from two decades of company-based
research provides insight into how companies
3. An ineffective senior management team, have at- tempted, either successfully or
unsuccessfully, to mesh their structural and
4. Poor vertical communication, managerial skills in their strategy implementation
efforts.
5. Poor coordination across functions, businesses, This project examined strategy implementation
or borders, and issues within the context of a company database
comprised of 124 organizational stories. These or-
6. Inadequate down-the-line leadership skills and ganizational stories were derived from both
development. primary and secondary sources. A total of 29 of
the organi-
zational stories have been developed into full- 2. A global pharmaceutical company, Merck &
length case studies with varying foci, and 95 of Co., Inc. is dedicated to developing advances
the stories are now in use as short vignettes in prod- ucts that will address unmet medical
explain- ing how a particular business challenge needs.
was handled by the organization.
This is not a longitudinal study. That is, compa- 3. Navistar International Transportation Corpora-
nies were examined, and a case or vignette com- tion operates in one principal industry seg-
piled for a particular point in time. While the ment–—the manufacture and marketing of
companies in the story database can be viewed medium and heavy trucks. This includes school
from a variety of perspectives, the traditional bus chassis, mid-range diesel engines, and ser-
product (consumer, business-to-business, service, vice parts.
or non- profit) and market distinctions
(International or 4. OMED Medical Supplies is located in Athens,
U.S. based) are used to describe the companies. Greece. The company, a distributor of medical
An epigrammatic overview of these 124 supplies to hospitals in Greece, was
company stories, per the product and market per- established in December of 2005 as a legal
spective, is provided below, and then a brief entity of single person/owner company
description of the companies referenced in this (atomiki epihirisi).
article is given.
5. Originally located in Newton, Massachusetts,
1. Consumer companies–—69 stories (9 Powrtron (disguised name) is a private,
internation- ally-based) predomi- nately family-held, company engaged
in the manufacture and sale of electronic
2. Business-to-business companies–—15 stories (5 analog circuit modules, isolation amplifiers,
internationally-based) and power con- verters.

3. Service companies–—33 stories (3 1.2.3. Organizational stories: Service

internationally- based) Service provider e-Motion Software LP is
headquar- tered in Bedford, Massachusetts. Its
4. Nonprofit companies–—7 stories (2 service is linked to the Oracle E-Business Suite of
international- ly-based) products. The company provides support that
makes Oracle Appli- cations more reliable,
1.2.1. Organizational stories: Consumers enhances the applications’ functionality, and
1. Cutco Cutlery Corporation is the largest manu- increases the efficiency of use in the Suite.
facturer and marketer of high-quality kitchen
cutlery and accessories in the United States 1.2.4. Organizational stories: Nonprofit
and Canada. Vector Marketing Corporation is Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Battered Women
the company’s sales division. ALCAS Fighting Back! was an education and advocacy
Corporation is the parent company. group that addressed the severity of domestic
violence as a human rights violation. Its primary
2. Founded in Quincy, Massachusetts, Dunkin’ Do- charge was to eradicate domestic violence in
nuts operates franchise retail outlets offering society and to pro- mote human rights for
coffee, donuts, and muffins. everyone.

3. Southern Home Developers (disguised name)

was located in a rural town in central 2. Implementation: Structures
Arkansas. The company operated out of a and managerial skills
small, corrugated metal production facility
with a crew of five men who built modules in Bonoma and Crittenden (1988) suggest that imple-
the facility for trans- port to a housing site for mentation is comprised of two main variables,
final assembly. struc- tures and managerial skills. Structures
provide the framework or configuration in which
1.2.2. Organizational stories: Business- companies operate effectively. Managerial skills
to- business are the behav- ioral activities that managers
1. Floral Farms (disguised name) grows and engage in within the structures developed by the
markets fresh-cut flowers. The company owns organization. Strategies are implemented through
its own farms in Colombia, and its marketing the structure, with mana- gerial skills as key
organiza- tion is located in Miami, Florida. indicators of the successful or unsuccessful
accomplishment of the implementation effort.
Thompson, Gamble, and Strickland (2006)
liken these managerial skills to management tasks or the merging of two companies in order for one
that arise in executing strategy. With research or both to remain competitive in the marketplace.
from these two sets of authors as a guide, eight The database of company stories from our
levers of implementation are specified in the research is ripe with cross-functional integration
current re- search. Consistent with the research issues. Com- panies such as Floral Farms and
of Bonoma and Crittenden (1988), these eight Southern Home Developers were deluged with
levers are divided into structure and skills. cross-functional is- sues hindering the
Structural variables offer an implementation implementation of formulated strategies. Floral
toolkit for identifying key levers that affect the Farms grew and marketed fresh- cut flowers.
formulation-implementation process and ensuring Developing new flower strains, and the growing
formulation-implementation-performance cycle. and development of products, took place in South
Within the capable organization framework sug- America, with product sales occurring in the
gested here, structural levers of implementation United States via a Miami-based sales force. Not
are only did the employees in the two different
countries speak different languages, but also
1. Actions–—who, what, and when of cross- neither geo- graphic group made the effort to
function- al integration and company better understand the other’s functional
collaboration; priorities. Therefore, consid- erable effort was
devoted to making sure production and sales
2. Programs–—instilling organizational learning worked in sync.
and continuous improvement practices; In Floral Farm’s pursuit of a market orientation
(formulated strategy), a consultant suggested that
3. Systems–—installing strategic support systems; the two groups close the geographic distance by
and visiting each other’s offices at least twice a year.
By doing so, marketing would see the trials and
4. Policies–—establishing strategy supportive poli- trib- ulations of growing agricultural products,
cies. and pro- duction would see firsthand what it was
like to respond to the demands of customers. The
Managerial skills are discretionary in nature and grand finale of these efforts was a company-wide
vary with individual perceptions and behavior. strategy meeting in which the company was
Skill- related implementation levers in the supposed to embark upon a new growth effort.
capable or- ganizations framework are After initial executive comments, this meeting
was turned over to the marketing staff to set the
5. Interacting–—the exercising of strategic leader- stage for growth. Unfortunately, the finale did
ship; not end with the intended energizing big bang.
Instead, it ended with a few brief comments by
6. Allocating–—understanding when and where to the production manager:
allocate resources;
You made a very nice presentation. It’s too bad
7. Monitoring–—tying rewards to achievement; we can’t increase output by the amounts you
and pro- jected for the 12-month time period. We
can’t change production for any of the products
8. Organizing–—the strategic shaping of corporate for the next 11 months. What’s planted is
culture. planted. I will send you an overview of product
availability for the upcoming fiscal period.
2.1. Structural levers Therefore, it was not the lack of an
appropriately formulated strategy, but actions
2.1.1. Actions: Fostering cross-functional within the struc- ture at Floral Farms that
integration and company collaboration prevented a positive per- formance outcome.
Crittenden (1991) states that successful strategy But what happens when the formulated
implementation requires the input and strategy does not appropriately fit with a
cooperation of all players in a company. Three company’s cross- functional ability to implement?
levels of strategy form a hierarchy of strategy Southern Home Developers depicts an example of
within a company: corporate strategy, business a company that began to implement a formulated
strategy, and function- al strategy. Successful strategy of mass customization without the means
strategy implementation, regardless of strategy for doing so. This company experienced early
level, requires the input and cooperation of every success with its modular home construction.
member of a company’s workforce, whether the Modular homebuilders build, deliver, and install a
implementation involves the development and single-family dwelling for about
distribution of a new product,
half the cost of a site-constructed home in about Innovation is at the heart of several of the
10-20% percent of the time relative to site- com- pany stories. In 2004, Merck was presented
constructed homes. Therefore, the competitive with an unprecedented challenge in its voluntary
ad- vantages are low price and short cycle times. recall of Vioxx. It was not business as usual at
The owner of Southern Home Developers decided Merck, given the considerable concern for the
to take orders for customized modular homes. long-term impact of the legal decisions regarding
That meant he was going to attempt a formulated Vioxx. Yet, amidst this uproar during tumultuous
strategy of mass customization. Unfortunately, times, the company’s sales people had to keep
cost overruns and longer setup times led to their spirits up and believe in the company that
conflict between the company’s sales person and they represented. The sales force essentially
the manufactur- ing/set-up crew. Promises made needed to become better informed about the
by the sales person did not mesh with the company as an innovative organization. In order
company’s manufacturing expertise. It was not to achieve this, the sales force in one geo-
clear that a mass customization strategy was even graphic region was presented with an overview of
appropriate in a marketplace driven by low prices the innovative efforts within the company,
and short cycle times. including new vaccines, HIV/AIDS international
Collaborations across companies occur in many programs, im- proved products, tablet computers
of the company stories. Dunkin’ Donuts required for the sales force, customization of information
sig- nificant collaboration within its supply chain on the web, patient assistance programs, and
for the successful rollout of its new bagel licensing deals. The sales people learned how the
product. With projected sales running high, the company was developing innovative programs for
product volume promised by the supplier was not continuous im- provement, and that the company
met, and caused significant delays in the product was not reliant on one product for long-term
rollout plan. Such delays were costly, and lost success.
sales could not be recaptured. The aggressive
rollout, however, was not supported by all 2.1.3. Systems: Installing strategic
functional areas within the company. Therefore, support systems
while experiencing supply problems with its Ross and Weill (2002) suggest that companies that
collaborative partner, the compa- ny also faced ‘‘I manage their information technology investments
told you so’’ objections internally. successfully will generate 40% higher returns than
their competitors. Essentially, the strategic
2.1.2. Programs: Instilling support system provides timely access to both
organizational learning and continuous qualitative and quantitative data about
improvement practices customers, human re- sources, revenues and
Florida and Goodnight (2005) suggest that a com- costs, and inventory/order fulfillment.
pany’s most important asset is not its raw Strategically, decisions have to be made about
materials, transportation systems, or political how much to spend, which business process to
influence. Rath- er, these authors claim that a support, and which capabilities are need- ed
company’s most im- portant asset is its creative company-wide versus function-wide. Tactically,
capital–—that is, the creative thinkers in the firm. the quality of information technology needed in
From an implementa- tion perspective, creative the firm and security/privacy concerns are issues
capital must be planned for in the firm, and will that arise in the implementation of the
determine the strategies that are ultimately information technology itself.
formulated and implemented. However, Schrage In conjunction with its action structural lever,
(2005) reports that hiring the right people is not Floral Farms utilized its systems lever in the
sufficient in the implementation model, because devel- opment of a decision-support model to
as noted by one CIO, ‘‘Even if you hire the right assist in making complicated cross-functional
people–—and we think we do–—they need to be in issues easier to understand. Mapping the cross-
an environment that encourages them to be functional deci- sion process into a decision-
innovative in ways we can use.’’ support system enabled managers to quantify
It appears, then, that organizational learning subjective interactions and include situational
and continuous improvement must incorporate aspects of marketing and pro- duction interactions
innova- tion into this implementation lever. into a more easily understood framework. Using
Santos, Doz, and Williamson (2004) reinforce the the decision-support system as a means of
importance of innovation in the implementation understanding the possible consequences of
process when they describe the integrated individual marketing, joint marketing, and pro-
innovation chain. This chain enables innovation to duction decision-making showed that functionally
transcend local and national boundaries by anchored decision criteria gave poorer results
encouraging companies to bring to- gether global than cross-functional decision criteria.
partners in the innovation effort. Additionally, the development,
operationalization, and discussion of
this strategic support system led to positive inter- performance standards); and Level 5–—Executive
functional discussions rather than negative (en- during greatness through personal humility and
confron- tation. pro- fessional will). While not necessary to move
sequentially through the hierarchy, an executive
2.1.4. Policies: Establishing must possess all of the skills inherent in levels 1 to
strategy supportive policies 4, as well as the characteristics of a level 5 leader.
Strategy-supportive policies envelop a collective All five levels of leadership were exhibited in the
pat- tern of day-to-day decisions and actions. database. One particular level 5 leader stands out
Thompson et al. (2006) reinforce the notion of in the database of companies. After a few years
top-down or formal guidance regarding such of weak sales and unprofitable effort at
behaviors and ac- tions. Additionally, there should international expansion, Cutco Cutlery Corporation
be consistency across geographically dispersed was starting to pull out of the downward spiral that
units. There is a tendency, unfortunately, to had resulted in considerable layoffs. Bringing the
create policies in re- sponse to particular company back into profitability demanded effort
incidents rather than in response to a pattern of from the entire workforce, but eventually the
incidents. The end result is a list of things that future began to look positive. In the summer of
should be done, which when viewed in total, does 2006, the CEO of parent company ALCAS
not support the company’s overall mission and Corporation planned to purchase a new car, but
objectives. Additionally, policies tend to change recognized that he needed to lead by example. He
with changes in management. decided to intentionally purchase a car he would
The Powrtron company’s management, in grap- feel comfortable parking on the manufacturing
pling with unprecedented problems of constrained facility’s lot next to those of many
capacity, was quick to respond with a new policy who were just being recalled to work.
whenever a delivery problem arose. The An in-depth review of all of the organizational
responses ranged from a plan to move production stories shows that strategic leadership, whether it
to a larger facility to making delivery promises of is conspicuous or not, is a critical implementation
6 weeks or less. Although the company divided its lever for building a capable organization. From
customers into three tiers, it began treating all the entrepreneur who worked days as a
customers alike. The lack of strategy-supportive consultant while devoting nights and weekends to
policies had, in essence, served to defeat building e- Motion Software LP, to the executive
strategic decisions about account management. director and founder of Battered Women Fighting
Not only did this result in customer relationship Back! who realized she might have reached the
problems, but reactive policy changes also incited end of her leadership capabilities, all company
conflict among Powrtron functional management situations ex- hibited the importance of the
members and created a culture of unproductive leadership lever in implementing strategy.
conflict. Unfortunately, the company’s CEO
delegated the handling of com- pany interactions 2.2.2. Allocating: Understanding when
to his COO and was not visibly present during this and where to allocate resources
intense time within the compa- ny, although he Resource allocation encompasses the use of major
was the one who had made the inconsistent policy resources such as money, people, and
changes that led to considerable company capabilities. In addition to financial resources,
instability. Montgomery (1992) identifies resources such as
physical capital (plant, equipment, geographic
2.2. Managerial skills levers location, and access to raw materials), human
capital (training, experi- ence, judgment,
2.2.1. Interacting: Exercising of intelligence, relationships, and the insight of
strategic leadership managers and workers), and organization- al
Key responsibilities of leaders include direction, capital (formal reporting systems, informal rela-
pro- tection, orientation, managing conflicts, and tionships within the firm, and relationships
shaping norms (Heifetz & Laurie, 2001). Collins (2005) between the firm and its external environment).
exam- ines such responsibilities of leaders and A startup company in Greece, OMED Medical
offers a leadership hierarchy consisting of five Supplies, realized that resource allocation was
levels: Level 1–—Highly capable individual probably its most critical implementation lever
(contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, ear- ly in the company’s existence. With financial
and work habits); Level 2–—Contributing team back- ing from family money, financial resources
member (group objectives, and works effectively were the most dominant capital that OMED
in group); Level 3–—Competent manager possessed. Physi- cally, the company did not
(organizes people and resources); Level 4–— manufacture products or store products in
Effective leader (vision and high inventory. The fact that the
company was located in Athens provided what is
consider- able geographic capital because Athens
is the center of much medical activity. Human
capital was a major resource for OMED. The
owner’s family has a strong medical background,
with three physicians in the immediate family,
including two located in Greece, and one in the
United States. However, the firm’s organizational
capital was questionable. There were no formal
systems or structures in place while the owner
covered all aspects of the business and ran the
business from her home. Informally, however, the
historical relationships the owner had within the
industry due to her family connec- tions allowed
for organizational capital that other- wise would
have taken considerable time to build.

2.2.3. Monitoring: Tying rewards

to achievement
Reward systems are generally divided into
monetary and non-monetary incentives. Monetary
incentives include such rewards as salary
increases, perfor- mance bonuses, stock options,
retirement packages, promotions, and various
perks. Non- monetary incentives include praise,
constructive criticism, visible recognition,
interesting assign- ments, job responsibility, and
job security. Accord- ing to Byrnes (2006), money
is where the rubber meets the road, and good
work should be rewarded, bad work should be
penalized, and executive pay should depend on
the entire corporation’s return on equity, which
encourages team building.
This is not unlike the incentive system at
Vector Marketing Corporation, the sales and
marketing arm of Cutco Cutlery Corporation,
where sales managers receive tremendous
financial bonuses for outstand- ing sales.
However, because they believe strongly in praise
and visible recognition, Vector Marketing
announces these bonuses at the year-end
banquet. Therefore, not only do managers enjoy
the financial rewards of the bonuses, but they
also receive ex- ternal acknowledgement of their
financial success among their peers. Like many
companies relying upon the strength of its sales
force to drive sales, Vector Marketing realizes
that it must use multiple types of rewards to
encourage and motivate em- ployees in a direct
selling company that relies on a college-student
sales force. The company prides itself on its
cornerstones of people, products, and programs,
and utilizes each of these elements in the
monitoring lever to build a capable organization.

2.2.4. Organizing: Strategic shaping

of corporate culture
Chatman and Cha (2003) suggest that culture relates
strongly to strategy implementation. They define
culture as a system of shared values (defining
important) and norms (defining appropriate organizations. While the eight levers that assist in
atti- tudes and behaviors). While an building a capable organi- zation can also serve as
organizational cul- ture is unique to each barriers in any organization, it was evident in
company, shaping corporate culture requires the organizational stories that
clearness in content, consistency in nature,
and comprehensiveness in coverage. Schein
(1996) proposes that there are three different
types of cultures in an organization: (a)
internal culture that is based on operational
success, (b) engineering culture that drives the
core technologies, and (c) executive culture
that engages the CEO and imme- diate
subordinates.
Company culture came through loud and
clear in the company database of
organizational stories. The importance of
internal culture was demonstrated, for
example, at Floral Farms. Unfortunately, the
internal culture driven by functional silos was a
negative force in that company. This negativity
with respect to internal culture can be
juxtaposed with the positive internal culture of
a company like Navistar International
Transportation, where the lack of functional
silos enabled the company to implement
programs that resulted in positive mar-
ketplace results. Navistar implemented a
strategy of mass customization, due largely to
the company’s actions and systems levers that
were part and parcel of the company’s
engineering culture driving its core
technologies.
Within the company database, the impact of
executive culture in companies of all shapes
and sizes is evidenced. Battered Women
Fighting Back! (BWFB), a nonprofit
organization, relied almost sin- gularly on its
executive director and founder to shape its
culture as it was catapulted into national
acclaim. The executive director and two film
com- rades from Cambridge Documentary Films
won an Academy Award for the best
documentary film. The director had worked in
human rights organizations around the world,
and had won numerous awards in the nonprofit
world. She was the backbone of the
organization; however, she began to wonder if
the culture she had instilled in the BWFB
organization was enough to take it to a
stronger level of oper- ations. She recognized
that while culture is a unique characteristic
within all companies, it is also a powerful
implementation tool for managers, and is
reflected in managerial decision-making.

3. Balancing the
implementation levers

Strategy implementation is generally studied

within the context of established
established firms are generally able to believed that organizational learning and continu-
overcompen- sate with another lever to reduce ous improvement practices were strengths, yet
the impact of a weak lever. When a company is in she had not engaged in any benchmarking efforts
the early stages of startup, however, it is relat- ed to continual improvement.
imperative that the entre- preneur or CEO Overall, using the levers as a managerial tool
understands how each of the levers relate to the allowed for the identification of efforts that
company’s strengths and weaknesses. Unless would facilitate formulation and implementation
identified, a weak lever can negatively feed the efforts, and for the identification of forces of
endless formulation-implementation-perfor- resistance that could inhibit the implementation
mance cycle that leads to subsequent attempts at process. Unless weak levers were identified,
implementing a strategy highly dependent upon overcome, or worked around, they would
that weak lever. ultimately constrain future strategy formulation
The idea of building a capable organization via efforts. For this startup com- pany, it was found
an understanding of the eight levers of that the proprietor was playing on managerial
implementation was examined at OMED Medical skills that tended to be discretionary in nature.
Supplies, the startup company in Greece referred The ritualized activities that have to be formally
to earlier. The sole proprietor launched her embedded in an organization are what the
business in January of 2006, and the company was proprietor had been overlooking in her startup
just beginning to con- tact both potential efforts.
customers and suppliers at that time. Model While building a capable organization does not
assessment within a startup company has two necessarily require use of all eight levers equally,
major objectives: (a) It allows the in-depth a capable organization has to have a clear under-
examination of the eight levers within the context standing of each lever’s role and its impact on the
of one company, and (b) it facilitates the develop- organization’s ability to succeed. It is only when
ment of the levers as an analytical tool for a an organization understands the capabilities of
startup company to use in identifying levers that each lever within the organization that it can
might serve as barriers to the company’s long- determine the right amount of leverage. For
term suc- cess. Managerially, model assessment example, the actions lever was weak at Floral
enables the proprietor to better understand her Farms, an organi- zation that had been in business
internal strengths and weaknesses when it comes for many years. Even with attempts to strengthen
to the notion that implementation might truly this lever, it was only through the successful
drive the strategy formulation process. parlaying of the systems lever that the company
Over a 2 month period, we worked with the was able to become stronger in its efforts to
proprietor of OMED Medical Supplies to examine implement a market orientation strategy. Another
each of the eight levers within the context of her well-established company, Cutco Cutlery
startup company. After an in-depth analysis of Corporation, appears to have a clear under-
each of the eight levers, it was evident that the standing of each lever, and to have found its own
proprie- tor was relying largely on her managerial unique blend of structural variables and
skills in the early stages of company development. managerial skills that enables it to have success in
There was uncertainty surrounding the rewards marketplace. A startup company, OMED Medical
lever, but this was likely due to the fact that Supplies, is attempting to build each of the eight
there were no monetary or people interactions at levers into the fabric of the organization.
that stage of development.
It became immediately apparent that the weak
links in the company’s implementation efforts 4. Strategy implementation: An ally
rest- ed within the structural levers. While the
company was going to be dependent upon Strategy implementation helps create the future.
collaborations with suppliers, no mechanisms or As an ally and not an opponent, the
strategic support sys- tems had been put in place implementation process works side-by-side with
to facilitate such inter- actions, nor had the the formulation process, and such collaboration
company invested time, energy, or dollars in the leads to plans that are financially, socially, and
pursuit of such technology efforts. Additionally, ethically responsible strategies for a company.
while company suppliers were gov- erned by Successful implementa- tion of a well-formulated
regulations surrounding ISO certification and CE and appropriate strategy will enable a company to
Marking (compliance within the European health, become better and better over time, therefore
safety, and environmental protection legis- achieving its longer-term vi- sion of a good
lation), the proprietor had established no policies mission, good planning, and overall corporate
related to her own operation within these success. The eight levers of implementa- tion
supplier boundaries. Of the four structural levers, identified here provide organizations with an
the owner
evaluative opportunity to determine which levers Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (2001). The work of leadership.
are working well, which levers need to be down- Harvard Business Review, 79(11), 131—141.
played due to inherent weakness, and which Johnson, L. K. (2004, December). Execute your strategy–—without
levers need to be improved given marketplace killing it. Harvard Management Update, 3—5.
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2005). The office of strategy
conditions. management. Harvard Business Review, 83(10), 72—80.
Mankins, M. C., & Steele, R. (2005). Turning great strategy into
great performance. Harvard Business Review, 83(7/8), 64—72.
References Montgomery, C. A. (1992). Resources: The essence of corporate
advantage. Harvard Business School Cases, #9-792-064.
Beer, M., & Eisenstat, R. A. (2000). The silent killers of Porter, T. W., & Harper, S. C. (2003). Tactical implementation:
strategy implementation and learning. Sloan Management The devil is in the details. Business Horizons, 46(1), 53—60.
Review, 41(4), 29—41. Ross, J. W., & Weill, P. (2002). Six IT decisions your IT people
Bonoma, T. V., & Crittenden, V. L. (1988). Managing marketing shouldn’t make. Harvard Business Review, 80(11), 84—92.
implementation. Sloan Management Review, 29(2), 7—14. Santos, J., Doz, Y., & Williamson, P. (2004). Is your innovation
Byrnes, N. (2006, May 1). The art of motivation. Business process global? MIT Sloan Management Review, 45(4), 31—37.
Week, 57—62. Schein, E. H. (1996). Three cultures of management: The key to
Chatman, J. A., & Cha, S. E. (2003). Leading by leverage organizational learning. Sloan Management Review, 38(1),
culture. 9—20.
California Management Review, 45(4), 20—34. Schrage, M. (2005). Innovation alchemy. Retrieved January 14,
Crittenden, V. L. (1991). Crossing functional lines: Achieving 2008, from [Link]
successful strategy implementation through effective fp;4;fpid;56492
internal partnering. Industrial Management, 33(1), 26—28. Thompson, A. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland, A. J. (2006).
Collins, J. (2005). Level 5 leadership. Harvard Business Strategy: Winning in the marketplace (2nd ed.). Burr Ridge,
Review, 83(7/8), 136—146. IL: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Florida, R., & Goodnight, J. (2005). Managing for creativity.
Harvard Business Review, 83(7/8), 124—131.
View publication stats