STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

MEANING:Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also defined as the manner in which an organization should develop, utilize, and amalgamate organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies that lead to competitive advantage and a better performance. Organizational structure allocates special value developing tasks and roles to the employees and states how these tasks and roles can be correlated so as maximize efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction-the pillars of competitive advantage. But, organizational structure is not sufficient in itself to motivate the employees. An organizational control system is also required. This control system equips managers with motivational incentives for employees as well as feedback on employees and organizational performance. Organizational culture refers to the specialized collection of values, attitudes, norms and beliefs shared by organizational members and groups.

Strategic implementation put simply is the process that puts plans and strategies into action to reach goals. A strategic plan is a written document that lays out the plans of the business to reach goals, but will sit forgotten without strategic implementation. The implementation makes the companys plans happen.

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Facts:Strategic implementation is critical to a companys success, addressing the who, where, when, and how of reaching the desired goals and objectives. It focuses on the entire organization. Implementation occurs after environmental scans, SWOT analyses, and identifying strategic issues and goals. Implementation involves assigning individuals to tasks and timelines that will help an organization reach its goals.

Features:A successful implementation plan will have a very visible leader, such as the CEO, as he communicates the vision, excitement and behaviors necessary for achievement. Everyone in the organization should be engaged in the plan. Performance measurement tools are helpful to provide motivation and allow for followup. Implementation often includes a strategic map, which identifies and maps the key ingredients that will direct performance. Such ingredients include finances, market, work environment, operations, people and partners

Nature of Strategy Implementation:It is possible to turn strategies and plans into individual actions, necessary to produce a great business performance. But it's not easy. Many companies repeatedly fail to truly motivate their people to work with enthusiasm, all together, towards the corporate aims. Most companies and organizations know their businesses, and the strategies required for success. However many corporations - especially large ones - struggle to translate the theory into action plans that will enable the strategy to be successfully implemented and sustained. Here ~2~

are some leading edge methods for effective strategic corporate implementation. These advanced principles of strategy realization are provided by the very impressive Foresight Leadership organization, and this contribution is gratefully acknowledged. Most companies have strategies, but according to recent studies, between 70% and 90% of organizations that have formulated strategies fail to execute them. A Fortune Magazine study has shown that 7 out of 10 CEOs, who fail, do so not because of bad strategy, but because of bad execution. In another study of Times 1000 companies, 80% of directors said they had the right strategies but only 14% thought they were implementing them well. Only 1 in 3 companies, in their own assessment, were achieving significant strategic success. The message clear effective strategy realization is key for achieving strategic success. Successful strategy formulation does not guarantee successful strategy implementation. It is always more difficult to do something (strategy implementation) than to say you are going to do it (strategy formulation)! Although inextricably linked, strategy implementation is fundamentally different from strategy formulation.

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Following formulation and implementation can be contrasted in the ways:

Strategy formulation is positioning forces before the action. Strategy implementation is managing forces during the action. Strategy formulation focuses on effectiveness. Strategy implementation focuses on efficiency. Strategy formulation is primarily an intellectual process. Strategy implementation is primarily an operational process. Strategy formulation requires good intuitive and analytical skills. Strategy implementation requires special motivation and leadership skills. Strategy formulation requires coordination among a few individuals. Strategy implementation requires coordination among many persons. Strategy-formulation concepts and tools do not differ greatly for small, large, for profit, or nonprofit organizations. However, strategy implementation varies substantially among different types and sizes of organizations. Implementing strategies requires such actions as altering sales territories, adding new departments, closing facilities, hiring new employees, changing an organization's pricing strategy, developing financial budgets, developing new employee benefits, establishing cost~4~

control procedures, changing advertising strategies, building new facilities, training new employees, transferring managers among divisions, and building a better computer information system. These types of activities obviously differ greatly between manufacturing, service, and governmental organizations.

Common Mistakes:A very common mistake in strategic implementation is not developing ownership in the process. Also, a lack of communication and a plan that involves too much are common pitfalls. Often a strategic implementation is too fluffy, with little concrete meaning and potential, or it is offered with no way of tracking its progress. Companies will often only address the implementation annually, allowing management and employees to become caught up in the day-to-day operations and neglecting the long-term goals. Another pitfall is not making employees accountable for various aspects of the plan or powerful enough to authoritatively make changes.

Needs:To successfully implement your strategy, several items must be in place. The right people must be ready to assist you with their unique skills and abilities. You need to have the resources, which include time and money, to successfully implement the strategy. The structure of management must be communicative and open, with scheduled meetings for updates. Management and technology systems must be in place to track the implementation, ~5~

and the environment in the workplace must be such that everyone feels comfortable and motivated.

The Plan:My Strategic Plan website offers a step-by-step plan for implementation. It includes finalizing the strategic plan with all necessary personnel, aligning the budget and producing various versions of the plan for individual groups. Next you will establish a system for tracking the plan and managing the system with rewards. The entire implementation plan is then presented to the entire organization, rolling it into annual company plans. Finally, you will schedule monthly meetings to keep everyone on track and annual review dates for reporting progress, and adding new assessments.

Strategic implementation and control:Implementing a strategy involves organising, resourcing and employing change management procedures.

Organizing:Implementing a strategy may require organizational changes, such as creating new units, merging existing ones or even switching from a geographical structure to a functional one or vice versa.

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Resourcing:Implementation may require significant budget shifts, impacting human resources and capital expenditure.

Change management:Implementing a strategy may have effects that ripple across an organization. Minimizing disruption can reduce costs and save time. One approach is to appoint an individual to champion the changes, address and eventually enlist opponents and proactively identify and mitigate problems.

Follwoing are the main steps in implementing a strategy:

Developing an organization having potential of carrying out strategy successfully. Disbursement of abundant resources to strategy-essential activities. Creating strategy-encouraging policies. Employing best policies and programs for constant improvement. Linking reward structure to accomplishment of results. Making use of strategic leadership.

Implementation of strategy is the process through which a chosen strategy is put into action. It involves the design and management
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of systems to achieve the best integration of people, structure, processes and resources in achieving organizational objectives.
Once the creative and analytical aspects of strategy formulation have been settled, the managerial priority is one of converting the strategy into operationally effective action. Indeed a strategy is never complete, even as formulation until it gains a commitment of the organizations resources and becomes embodied in organizational activities. Therefore, to bring the result, the strategy should be put to action because the choice of even the soundest strategy will not affect organizational activities and achievement of its objectives. Therefore, effective implementation of strategy is a must for the organization. Implementation of strategy can be defined as follows: Judging from this definition, it can be observed that the scope of managerial activities associated with strategy implementation is virtually coexistence with the entire management process. This is because the entire management process is geared up according to the needs of the strategy. In particular, following factors are important in strategy implementation:

Institutionalization of Strategy

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The first basic action that is required for putting a strategy into operation is its institutionalization. Since strategy does not become either acceptable or effective by virtue of being well designed and clearly announced, the successful implementation of strategy requires that the strategy framer acts as its promoter and defender. Often strategy choice becomes a personal choice of the strategist because his personality variables become an influential factor in strategy formulation. Thus, it becomes a personal strategy of the strategist. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the institutionalization of strategy because without it, the strategy is subject to being undermined. Therefore, it is the role of the strategist to present the strategy to the members of the organization in a way that appeals to them and brings their support. This will put organizational people to feel that it is their own strategy rather than the strategy imposed on them. Such a feeling creates commitment so essential for making strategy successful.

Setting Proper Organizational Climate

Setting organizational climate relevant for strategy implementation is important for making strategy to work. Organizational climate refers to the characteristics of internal environment that conditions the co-operation, the development of the individuals, the extent of commitment and dedication of people in the organization, and the efficiency with which the purpose is translated into results. Organizations whose strategy is implemented with conducive climate are more effective than those whose are not. People are the instruments in implementing a particular strategy and organizational climate is basically a people-oriented attempt. A top manager can play an important role in shaping the organizational climate not only by providing standards for what others do but also what he does because organizational climate is a matter of practice rather than the precept. ~9~

Developing Appropriate Operating Plans

Operating plans are the action plans, operational program and decisions that take place in various parts of the organization. If they are made to reflect desired strategic results, they contribute to the achievement, of organizational objectives by focusing attention on those factors, which are important. For example, in budgeting, more resources will be allocated on those factors, which are critical to the success of the organization as spelled out during the strategy formulation process. There are various ways of making sure that operating plans contribute. If every manager understands strategy, he can certainly review the program recommendations of staff advisers and line subordinates to see that they are consistent with the requirements of the strategy. Appropriate committees to see if they contribute positively can review major program. This lends an aura of formality to the program decisions and their influences on strategy may become clear.

Developing Appropriate Organization Structure.

Organization structure is the pattern in which the various parts of the organization are interrelated or interconnected. It prescribes relationships among various positions and activities. For implementing strategy, the organization structure should be designed according to the needs of the strategy. The relationship between strategy and structure can be thought of in terms of utilizing structure for strategy implementation because structure is a means to an end, that is, to provide facilities for implementing strategy. Therefore, both should be integrated. In the absence of such integration, outcome may be confusion, misdirection and splintered effort within the organization. There can be various ways of designing an organization structure. However, the major issues involved in designing the structure to fit the strategy involve the answers of following questions. ~10~

1. What should be the different units of the organization? 2. What components should join together and what components should be kept apart? 3. What is the appropriate placement and relationship of different units?

Periodic Review of Strategy

There should be periodic review of strategy to find out whether the given strategy is relevant. This is required because even the care-fully developed strategies might cease to be suitable if events change, knowledge becomes more clear, or it appears that the environment will not be as originally thought. Thus, strategies should be reviewed from time to time. What should be the frequency for such a review is not universal but major strategies should be reviewed at least once a year. In fact this is done by most of the organizations who believe in relating themselves with the environment.

Excellently formulated strategies will fail if they are not properly implemented. Also, it is essential to note that strategy implementation is not possible unless there is stability between strategy and each organizational dimension such as organizational structure, reward structure, resource-allocation process, etc. Strategy implementation poses a threat to many managers and employees in an organization. New power relationships are predicted and achieved. New groups (formal as well as informal) are formed whose values, attitudes, beliefs and concerns may not be known. With the change in power and status roles, the managers and employees may employ confrontation behaviour. ~11~

Strategy Implementation, the 4th step of the strategy management process, is putting formulated strategies into action. Without successive implementation, valuable strategies deeloped by managers are virtually worthless.

The successful implementation of strategy required 4 basic skills: 1. 2. 3. 4. INTERACTING SKILL ALLOCATING SKILL MONITORING SKILL ORGANIZING SKILL

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INTERACTING SKILL:
Interacting Skill is the ability to manager people during implementation. Managers who are able to understand the fears and frustrations others feel during the implementation of a new strategy tend to be the best implementers. These managers empathize with organization members and bargain for the best way to put a strategy into action.

ALLOCATING SKILL :
Allocating skill is the ability to provide the organizational resources necessary to implementing a strategy. Successful implementers are talented at scheduling jobs, budgeting time and money, allocating other resources that are critical for implementation.

MONITORING SKILL:
Monitoring skill is the ability to use information to determine whether a problem has arisen that is blocking implementation. Good Strategy Implementers set up feedback systems that continually tell them about the status of strategy implementation.

ORGANIZING SKILL :
Organizing skill is the ability to create throughout the organization a network of people who can help solve implementation problems as they occur.

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Good implementers customize this network to include individuals who can handle the special types of problems anticipated in the implementation of a particular strategy. Overall , the successful implementation of a strategy requires handling people appropriately, allocating resources necessary for implementation, monitoring and implementing progress, and solving implementation problems as they occur. Perhaps the most important requirements are knowing which people can solve specific implementation problems and being able to involve them when those problems arise.

STRATEGIC CONTROL:
Strategic Control, the last step of the Strategy Management Process, consists of monitoring and evaluating the strategy management process as a whole to ensure that it is operating properly. Strategic Control focuses on the activities involved in environmental analysis, organizational direction, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy control itself checking that all steps of the strategy management process are appropriate, compatible and functioning properly.

Getting Your Strategy Ready for Implementation

For those businesses that have a plan in place, wasting time and energy on the planning process and then not implementing the plan is very discouraging. Although the topic of implementation may not be the most exciting thing to talk about, its a fundamental business practice thats critical for any strategy to take hold. ~14~

The strategic plan addresses the what and why of activities, but implementation addresses the who, where, when, and how. The fact is that both are critical to success. In fact, companies can gain competitive advantage through implementation if done effectively. In the following sections, you discover how to get support for your complete implementation plan and how to avoid some common mistakes.

Avoiding the Implementation pitfalls

Because you want your plan to succeed, heed the advice here and stay away from the pitfalls of implementing your strategic plan. Here are the most common reasons strategic plans fail:

Lack of ownership: The most common reason a plan fails is lack of ownership. If people dont have a stake and responsibility in the plan, itll be business as usual for all but a frustrated few. ~15~

Lack of communication: The plan doesnt get communicated to employees, and they dont understand how they contribute.

Getting mired in the day-to-day: Owners and managers, consumed by daily operating problems, lose sight of long-term goals. _ Out of the ordinary: The plan is treated as something separate and removed from the management process.

An overwhelming plan: The goals and actions generated in the strategic planning session are too numerous because the team failed to make tough choices to eliminate non-critical actions. Employees dont know where to begin.

A meaningless plan: The vision, mission, and value statements are viewed as fluff and not supported by actions or dont have employee buy-in.

Annual strategy: Strategy is only discussed at yearly weekend retreats. _ Not considering implementation: Implementation isnt discussed in the strategic planning process. The planning document is seen as an end in itself.

No progress report: Theres no method to track progress, and the plan only measures whats easy, not whats important. No one feels any forward momentum.

No accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that each measure, objective, data source, and initiative must have an owner.

Lack of empowerment: Although accountability may provide strong motivation for improving performance, employees must also have the authority, responsibility, and tools necessary to impact relevant measures. Otherwise, they may resist involvement and ownership. Its easier to avoid pitfalls when theyre clearly identified. Now that you know what they are, youre more likely to jump right over them!

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Covering all your bases

As a business owner, executive, or department manager, your job entails making sure youre set up for a successful implementation. Before you start this process, evaluate your strategic plan and how you may implement it by answering a few questions to keep yourself in check. Take a moment to honestly answer the following questions:

How committed are you to implementing the plan to move your company forward? How do you plan to communicate the plan throughout the company? Are there sufficient people who have a buy-in to drive the plan forward? How are you going to motivate your people? Have you identified internal processes that are key to driving the plan forward? Are you going to commit money, resources, and time to support the plan? What are the roadblocks to implementing and supporting the plan? How will you take available resources and achieve maximum results with them?

You dont need to have the perfect answers to all these questions right now, but just make sure that youve given all the questions equal consideration. You dont want to look back six months from now, and wish you had identified some big issues that are now threatening your success. If youve identified some red flags, assess if theyre huge obstacles or small ones. If theyre big, get them out of the way before you implement, even if it means pushing your timeline out for awhile.

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Making sure you have the support

Often overlooked are the five key components necessary to support implementation: people, resources, structure, systems, and culture. All components must be in place in order to move from creating the plan to activating the plan.

People
The first stage of implementing your plan is to make sure to have the right people on board. The right people include those folks with required competencies and skills that are needed to support the plan. In the months following the planning process, expand employee skills through training, recruitment, or new hires to include new competencies required by the strategic plan.

Resources
You need to have sufficient funds and enough time to support implementation. Often, true costs are underestimated or not identified. True costs can include a realistic time commitment from staff to achieve a goal, a clear identification of expenses associated with a tactic, or unexpected cost overruns by a vendor. Additionally, employees must have enough time to implement what may be additional activities that they arent currently performing.

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Structure
Set your structure of management and appropriate lines of authority, and have clear, open lines of communication with your employees. A plan owner and regular strategy meetings are the two easiest ways to put a structure in place. Meetings to review the progress should be scheduled monthly or quarterly, depending on the level of activity and time frame of the plan.

Systems
Both management and technology systems help track the progress of the plan and make it faster to adapt to changes. As part of the system, build milestones into the plan that must be achieved within a specific time frame. A scorecard is one tool used by many organizations that incorporates progress tracking and milestones. See the section Keeping Score of Your Progress later in this chapter for info on how to create a scorecard for your company.

Culture
Create an environment that connects employees to the organizations mission and that makes them feel comfortable. To reinforce the importance of focusing on strategy and vision, reward success. Develop some creative positive and negative consequences for achieving or not achieving the strategy. The rewards may be big or small, as long as they lift the strategy above the day-to-day so people make it a priority.

Determine your plan of attack

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Implementing your plan includes several different pieces. Implementing a plan can sometimes feel like it needs another plan of its own. But you dont need to go to that extent because Ive done it for you! Use the steps below as your base implementation plan. Modify it to make it your own timeline and fit your organizations culture and structure.

SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN IMPLEMENTING A NEW STRATEGY IN A BUSINESS

'Strategy is defined as the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals' Chandler(1962)

Strategy is a process and could be considered in fewer than three stages. These are: strategic analysis; this is the stage where through analysis the strategist identifies the opportunities threats, strengths and weaknesses in the environment; the strategic formulation ~20~

stage, where a choice is made and the strategy implementation stage is the stage where the strategy is translated into action. Implementing a strategy or strategy implementation is defined as 'the translation of strategy into organisational action through organisational structure and design, resource planning and the management of strategic change'.

Analysing the definition, it becomes obvious that strategy implementation is somewhat complex. Therefore, the successful implementation of a strategy would be how well the various components in carrying it out are successfully integrated and interact. To identify significant problems encountered in implementing a new strategy in a business, a critical look at the components to be applied in implementing the strategy would be a good pointer. These are considered below: Organisational structure and design; and strategy implementation; translating the strategy into organisational action by using the structure of the organization will also be dependant on the type of structure in use in the organization. This is so because the needs of a multinational organization are different from those of a small business. It is also possible that the extent of devolution or centralisation can influence strategy implementation. For example using a matrix structure which often takes the forms of product and geographical divisions or functional and divisional structures operating in tandem; the time taken for decisions to be made may be much longer than in more conventional structures. The organisational structure and design aspect of the strategy implementation deals with how the human resources in the organization are mobilised and organised to bring about the corporate strategy. The main significant problems encountered through the usage of organisational aspect in strategy implementation is the fact that most of

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the employees can leave the firm if they feel that they are being 018used019 in actual fact if they are not motivated. This is particularly so where the CEO or senior management imposes the strategy on the employees.

Another problem encountered here is the way and manner information is passed down or up the ranks. If there is a blockage which impedes the flow of information processes it means that decisions would be made based on outdated or obsolete information. This can be solved by devolving the central command for easy flow of information among all rank and files especially in implementing a new strategy in a business. Recognition must be given to organisational structure and designs set up where operational and strategic decisions are made, there should be compromise if implementing a new strategy will succeed in any business. The next aspect in strategy implementation- resource planning sets out resources and competences need to be created. It deals with the identification of resources needed and how those resources will be deployed and controlled to create the competences needed to implement the strategies successfully. This resource configuration is dependent on: protecting unique resources i.e. where a strategy depends on the uniqueness of a particular resource such as patent; and it must be protected; by legal means; fitting resources together, (mix resources to create competence) business process re-engineering (to create a dynamic improvement in performance) and exploiting experience by learning and improving continuously to improve competence.

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One of the major problems of strategy implementation as a result of resource planning is a failure to translate statements of strategic purpose, such as gaining market share into critical factors that will make the purpose achievable and ultimately achieved. This a critical success factor analysis can be pursue as a start in resource planning. For example a definite timetable might be needed for an organization trying to introduce, say a new product for Christmas. A detailed examination of the timing has to be done if production and its marketing would be a success; as well as the allocation of funds for this undertaking. The problem here is that due to the non-uniformity in the times needed for the various activities, it is difficult to know where to start. Scholes et al (1999) writes that the circularity of the problem is quite usual in developing a plan of action, and raises the question of where to start- with a market forecast, an available level of funds, a production-level constraint, or what? The answer is that it may not matter too much where the starting point is, since the plan will have to be re-worked and re-adjusted several times. A useful guideline is to enter the problem through what appears to be the major change area. An organization planning new strategies of growth may well start with an assessment of market opportunity. Someone starting a new business may will begin with a realistic assessment of how much capital they might have available. Critical path analysis is recommended for strategies which have detailed planning of implementation. Another problem envisaged is the conflict arising among departments on the allocation of funds especially where money is involved in the implementation of the new strategy.

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The next component in the implementation stage of the strategy is the management of strategic change. It is widely accepted that strategic change builds on four underlying premises:

1.

There is a clear view within an organization of the strategy to be followed.

2.

Change will not occur unless there is a commitment to change

3.

The approach to managing strategic change is likely to be context dependent.

4.

Change must address the powerful influence of the paradigm and cultural web on, the

strategy being followed by the organization.

There are two types of change -incremental change-which merely builds on the skills, routines and beliefs of those in the organization, so that change is efficient and likely to win their commitment, and transformational change-which requires the organization to change its paradigm over time. It could be a change in routine ('the way of doing things around here'). It could also be a change in strategy that will necessitate the change. Although the implementation of strategy concerns the changing aspect of organization structure, control systems and resource planning which does affect the day-to-day operations of members of the organization; people's behaviours and perceptions may not have changed. To effect a successful strategy implementation, management must also adopt appropriate styles to manage the change processes. For example, it there is a problem in managing change based on misinformation, or lack of information, education and communication style ~24~

will be used. This involves the explanation of the reasons for and means of strategic change. Collaboration or participation involving those who will be affected by strategic change in the identification of strategic issues; intervention, direction and coercion styles.

Associated with management of strategic change is the problem of change management. It becomes absolutely difficult to manage the change which comes about as a result of the implementation. For example some managers will lose their position as a result of the change (delayering) others might be made redundant as a result of do upsizing others might still lose their job titles or position which they cherished most as a result of business process re-engineering. This will demotivate the staff and the organization may lose some competent staff. Others may have to be retrained to take up new positions or demoted if they are to remain in the organization. This kind of problem can be avoided if management adopts a participatory style of leadership and get the staff involve from the formulation to the implementation stages of the strategy.

In conclusion, it could be expedient to point out that just as there are numerous definitions of strategy, its implementation style might differ and so might its attendant problems and solutions. Nevertheless, since implementation involves the controlling of others behaviours and sometimes perceptions and culture, most problems would be human-related and probably possible solutions would be dependent on management style and behaviour of the leadership in terms of structure and availability and allocation of resources.

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Why Is Strategy Implementation Often Considered the Most Difficult Stage in Strategic Management?
The implementation stage of strategic management is often considered the most difficult stage of strategic management. This does not have to be the case, however. Understanding the causes of implementation difficulties will allow managers to avoid them and to successfully implement firm strategies.

Resources Are Often Lacking

Deciding to implement a strategy is one thing, but the actual implementation requires resources such as staff and capital. Often, firms will create a strategy but fail to account for the resources that are needed to actually implement this. Not surprisingly, this creates immense difficulties and, often, makes the implementation phase of strategic management the most difficult.

Processes May Be Poorly Defined

The implementation stage is often the most difficult stage of strategic management simply because the implementation process is often poorly defined. A poorly defined implementation process causes confusion and uncertainty and makes it difficult, and often impossible, to successfully implement the strategy.

Lack of Support
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The support of employees and managers is needed in order to successfully implement a strategy. When there is a lack of support, people do not proactively make the changes that are needed to adapt to the strategy. This creates large difficulties for strategy implementation.

No Followup

One of the largest difficulties in strategic management occurs when there is no followup to the strategy implementation. When this happens, managers simply enact a strategy but fail to check if it has been successfully implemented. This makes the implementation difficult, because there is no way to ensure that it has been successful.

CONCLUSION

This project explained the process of strategy implementation, the reasons why many organizations fail toimplement the strategy, and the drivers for a successful strategy

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implementation. Thereby, the research questionsthree till five have been answered. To fully understand the strategy implementation process, the chapter started with a description of the process of strategy formulation, i.e. the creation of the organizations mission, vision andstrategic decisions. When the strategic decisions have been made, the organization can start with the actualimplementation. In this process, governance and ethics form the foundation through which management can inform, direct, manage, and monitor the activities of the organization towards the realization of its goals. Based onthe governance systems, management determines the organizational structure, culture, and control systemsneeded for the strategy to be put to action. Although most companies do take into account this general process for strategy implementation, they forget otherimportant factors, which could cause the implementation to fail. The main factors for failure encountered by manyorganizations are ineffective leadership, lack of ownership, lack of necessary resources, insufficient riskidentification, unclear objectives, tasks and responsibilities, ineffective and insufficient communication, and finally,a poorly formulated strategy, which is not implementable or not worth implementing. To increase chances of a successful strategy implementation, management should bear in mind the drivers for success, namely, involvementof key personnel in strategy formulation and implementation planning, commitment to the strategic decision at alllevels of the organization, two-way communication on the strategic decisions and implementation process, theavailability of sufficient and adequate resources, and last but definitely not least, the creation of a balanced implementation plan.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:Books :Strategy Implementation Readings By P J Smit

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ISBN No : 0-7021-5547-0 ISBN No : 978-07021-5547-5 Strategy Specific Decision Making A Guide for Executing Competitive Strategy By William G. Forgang ISBN No : 0-7656-1288-7 ISBN No : 0-7656-1289-5 Web Sites :

www.wikipedia.org

http://www.heritage.org/index/country/Maldives

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