In the article "The secrets to Sucessfull Strategy Execution" in the Harvard Business Review, Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin and Elizabeth Powers describe the results of interviews and surveys of a large number of employees and managers at various levels in more than 1000 companies in more than 50 countries.

In the article, they identify four basic building blocks that organizations can use to strengthen the execution of a strategy.

1. Clear decision-making rights
2. Effective information flow
3. Balanced motivators
4. Structural changes

The interesting thing is that many companies are well aware that there is something lagging on the execution front. They try to do something about it, but the first area that companies choose to focus on is the structure of the organization. The solution that the studies show gives the least effect (see text box above). Changes to the organization's structure may give a short-term improvement in efficiency, but quickly (after a few years) the organization is back where it started and with the same problematic structures.

According to the authors, companies must instead introduce changes in relation to how the information flow is in the organization and ensure that everyone in the organization has a clear picture of who is responsible for what and who makes what kind of decisions. When this is under control, the other building blocks follow almost automatically.

In the article, the authors identify 17 things that you can screw up to improve your strategy execution. Here you get the authors' top 5:

Make sure that:

1. everyone has a good idea of what ideas and actions he/she is responsible for
2. important information about your competitors quickly reaches headquarters/management
3. decisions are rarely doubted
4. information has free flow through the organization
5. all employees have the information they need so they understand the impact their decisions have on the bottom line.

Harvard Business Review: The Secrets to successful Strategy Execution. By : Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin and Elizabeth Powers