Strategy Execution Module 2.docx

Building a Successful Strategy Name Institution Building a Successful Strategy Simons, R. (2016). Strategy Execution Module 2: Building A Successful Strategy. Harvard Business School The Boston Retail Mission statement reads: “Boston Retail Clothing was founded to offer young-at-heart customers the best in fashion value and fun. Our employees work together as a team to listen, learn and serve to very best of our ability. We will not sell products that we would not be proud to own to sell ourselves. We anticipate fashion trends and ensure our products lead the way” (Simons, 2016). A look at the mission statement creates the allowance to infer various strengths. To begin with, the tone of the message is focused and tailored towards the information needs of stakeholders in a way that enables them to understand what the firm is up to and the product it offers. More importantly, the mission includes the perspective, the position, the plans and actions of the firm, which should be at the core of an ideal mission statement (Simons, 2016). In this case, the firm’s perspective can be inferred as the offering the young-at-heart customers the best products. The position is the commitment of the firm’s employees to produce quality products. The plans, for instance, involve anticipating trends and ensuring the products lead the way. Actions include focusing solely on quality and appealing fashion. Besides, the strength of the mission can also be inferred from the way it outlines a way the company will achieve its strategic goals. The mission accomplishes this aspect when it ties the corporate values to the business strategy. However, the mission can be seen to be limited because it tends to focus largely on appeasing the end consumers. It fails to talk to recognize other important stakeholders and their needs, such as the suppliers and employees. One might think the company only values its customers. Simons, R. (2016). Strategy Execution Module 2: Building A Successful Strategy. Harvard Business School The process of building a successful strategy is inherently demanding and not straightforward path (Simons, 2016). Like any other businesses operating in the contemporary society, a company interested in making money from an industry will need to be conscious about various factors, including being cautious about the challenges and being open to exploit opportunities. On the overall, one could argue that making money in a market requires everything that could be necessary — committed leadership, strategy, informed management, and resources, among others, in what can be referred to as a pattern of actions. Chargify (2010). Companies that Succeeded by Changing Their Business Model. Retrieved from https://www.chargify.com/blog/6-companies-that-succeeded-by-changing-their-business-model/ Chargify (2010) discusses the significance of changing business strategies, providing case studies of companies that made it by pursuing such a strategy. The examples of mentioned companies include Paypal, Google, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Napster. A look at the cases of these companies creates the allowance to infer different elements that made these companies successful. One of these factors is thinking about and implementing continual change management. The market evidences some changes. Therefore, part of the responsibility of the management is to embrace the strategy that would keep abreast the market dynamics. Companies that fail to embrace this strategy will risk remaining the same, and will certainly be overtaken by other competitors in the market. Secondly, implementing the strategic changes requires informed leadership with the ability to communicate consistently regarding the need for change and managing resistance. All the cases demonstrate that the changes were initiated by certain committed individuals. These individuals were able to work closely with their team members, identifying the need for change, creating a vision and working together to implement the needed changes. Leadership is critical is driving some constructive risk-taking processes. Finally, the resource factor cannot also be overlooked. The process of implementing the change is inherently demanding and will require investing resources to bring about the change. In many of the mentioned cases, one can see Google, Facebook, and Apple, among other companies investing in research, employee training and development and other tasks to make the change a success. On the overall, implementing the incremental change requires people, culture, and systems. The aspect of people alludes to the required human resource and leadership. It needs to be qualified, committed, and motivated. The culture describes the environment under which people and systems should work to produce results. The systems describe processes and factors that are interrelated and which determine the functioning of the organization. MsGregor, L. and Doshi, N. (2015). How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation".  Harvard Business Review, November 25, 2015 The article by MsGregor and Doshi (2015) explores ways that company culture influences the motivation of employees. The article acknowledges that people work for different reasons, including potential, play, and purpose, and economic pressure, inertia and emotional pressure. The first three factors (potential, play, and purpose) play a crucial role in motivating employees, while the rest (economic pressure, inertia and emotional pressure) have a negative impact on motivation. Therefore, what an ideal organization culture does to motivate its employees is to maximize potential, play, and purpose, while minimizing economic pressure, inertia and emotional pressure. Such an approach to motivation is effective, and it is often referred to as total motivation. Otherwise, an enabling organization culture can be referred as an ecosystem in which employees operate and thrive through the support of organization policies, leadership and system design. In light of this discussion, team leaders can play a crucial role in motivating employees utilizing the presented theory. A team leader should strive to maximize potential, play, and purpose, while minimizing economic pressure, inertia and emotional pressure. For instance, he may facilitate training and development to employees, a step that will increase their potential to shun work-related stress and pressure. In my experience, I have evidenced a case in which organizations boosted the morale of employees by sponsoring them to pursue further studies to meet the needs of the knowledge economy. Another example is to encourage a certain level of autonomy at the workplace to enable employees to enjoy flexibility in making decisions, such as through delegation of roles. Such a step would make the employees feel appreciated and part of the organizations. I have also seen a case in which an organization improved employee retention by giving them some flexibility and making rules lenient. Leinwand, P. & Rotering, J. (2017).How to Excel at Both Strategy and Execution. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/11/how-to-excel-at-both-strategy-and-execution The article by Leinwand and Rotering (2017) highlights various elements that can be crucial in steering organizations towards success. Firstly, the article acknowledges leadership as a critical success factor and encourages organizations to nurture it. Leadership is essentially seen a process of creating followership and getting people to accomplish the organizational goals. Indeed, the demanding nature of the management of has compelled cotemporary organizations to start looking for ways to achieve efficiency. While other strategies have been suggested, the call to embrace leadership in managing teams is considered to be perhaps the most notable. Such a form of leadership needs to be tactical and tailored to the situations and the demands of the team. This endeavor is best assured by embracing strategic leadership. The leadership strategy enables one to present himself to the rest of the members as a trustworthy and committed leader who steers them towards making an informed decision. This outcome is particularly assured by the prominent role that leaders play as a facilitator, mediator, and director, enabling the followers to share their concerns and contribute openly and constructively and support change. Meanwhile, successful leaders need to both strategists and executioners of the strategies. According to by Leinwand and Rotering (2017), unlike the past when the leaders did not need to have both skills, the current environment demands one to have both to be effective. Indeed, this point is agreeable because both skills are inextricably linked to each other. In this regard, it is important for an organization to invest in leadership capacity building more than ever. References Chargify (2010). Companies that Succeeded by Changing Their Business Model. Retrieved from https://www.chargify.com/blog/6-companies-that-succeeded-by-changing-their-business-model/ Leinwand, P. & Rotering, J. (2017).How to Excel at Both Strategy and Execution. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/11/how-to-excel-at-both-strategy-and-execution MsGregor, L. and Doshi, N. (2015). How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation".  Harvard Business Review, November 25, 2015 Simons, R. (2016). 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