LEADERSHIP
Strategy Focused
Organizations
By Dr. Kellen Kiambati
C
hanging trends within the
business environment affect the
performance of organizations and
therefore have a bearing on the strategies
adopted by organizations (Tsiakkiros,
2002). An important part of the strategic
planning process is to recognize and
explicitly state any key assumptions about
what the future may hold.
Craig (2011) further observes that to be
successful, a business manager must find a
fit between what the business environment
wants and what the firm provides, as well
as between what the firm needs and what
the environment can provide.
Organizations that plan to excel ensure
that strategy is understood and executed
by all employees because it entails the
activities in which an organization elects
to excel. The organization must be aligned
around its strategy, and performance
management systems help create that
alignment.
Most performance management systems
are designed around the annual budget
and operating plan which is a recipe
for failure. They promote short-term,
incremental, tactical behavior. While this
is a necessary part of management, it is
not enough. There are five major principles
that are followed in building a strategy
focused organization as enumerated here-
under.
Translate the strategy into
operational terms
Putting strategy at the center of the
To move strategy out of the boardroom into the
office and shop-floor and make it ‘everyone’s
everyday job’ is the pre-eminent challenge for
organizations and this principle considers per-
sonal scorecards and balanced pay-cheques’.
82 MAL22/18 ISSUE
management system implies that strategy
should be described so that it can be
understood and acted upon. Unfortunately,
there are no standards for strategy. If
managers do not build management
systems around strategies, they end up
describing strategy that is both unreliable
and inconsistent.
This principle comprises two sub-
components: Strategy Maps and Balanced
Scorecards that together describe the
strategy and its implementation. It is
by translating strategy into the logical
architecture of a Strategy Map and a
Balanced Scorecard that organizations
create a common, unders