January 2020
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MiMfg Magazine
Improve Your Strategic Execution
By Dennis Theis, CPA, CVGA • Maner Costerisan
Like the New Year’s resolutions graveyard, the
strategy landscape is littered with great ideas that do not
reach full potential. What causes strategic initiatives
to fail? How can you strategically accomplish more with
the resources you have? Following are three frequently
experienced barriers to executing strategy and suggested
solutions to make your efforts more successful.
Communication
Various strategy studies peg between 90-95 percent
of employees do not understand their organization’s
key strategies. Just think of all the daily decisions made
across your company without a clear understanding
of the company’s direction. Pick an initiative that has
recently failed, and consider if communication is to
blame. To improve communication, publish your
strategic initiatives for all to see, stress their importance
at the onset and refer back to them throughout the year.
Regularly ask individuals throughout the company if
they can tell you what the key strategies are. If they
cannot, the message is not getting through as intended
or is not discussed frequently enough to keep it top of
mind. Keep communicating until you are confident
all levels of your company know and understand its
strategy. Schedule out regular updates and seek
feedback on implementation successes and challenges
to reinforce its relevance.
Alignment with Compensation
“You get what you pay for” certainly applies
when implementing strategy. Your success rate can
drop dramatically if you have strategic initiatives not
specifically tied to compensation. Establishing strategy-
related goals and linking them with compensation
clearly communicates the importance to the company
and the individual. Given the intense time pressures
imposed on most individuals, the shifting of workload
or reprioritizing of projects may need to occur to make
accomplishing a goal manageable. If tying compensation
to specific goals is a new practice, consider starting on
a smaller scale and building to larger goals and amounts
over time fueled by the success of prior goals.
Navigating Change
The rate of change is ever increasing in not only
its pace but also the variety of ways it can affect a
company, so the need to change will only continue
to heighten. One of the biggest change killers is the
passive resister. You know the type, rarely objecting
or offering solutions, but as soon as plans are made,
they undermine decisions and impede change by
either throwing up barriers, or simply not adding
their energy to the cause. Active resisters are easier
to spot, while the stealth-like nature of a passive
resister often makes them more dangerous. The key
is to be able to identify change agents and empower
them. As for the resisters, change who you can and
“neutralize” who you can’t.
If your company struggles with change, I suggest
starting with small initiatives and building momentum
to larger ones over time. Remember to celebrate
successes along the way. Define what represents a
win and make sure you acknowledge and reward
those results as early and often as you can to keep
the energy level high.
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Dennis Theis is a CPA and certified value growth advisor
and a principal for Maner Costerisan PC. He may be
reached at 517-886-9537 or [email protected].
Maner Costerisan is an MMA Premium Associate
Member and has been a member company since
October 1976. Visit online: www.manercpa.com.
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