Book Review of "Executing Your Strategy"

As anyone who works on strategy execution knows, there are a host of books (some scholarly and some not so much) on the topic of Strategy Execution. Just this past month, Harvard Business School Press released a new book entitled, “Executing Your Strategy” co-written by Mark Morgan, Raymond Elliot Levitt, and William Malek (who has been a guest contributor to The Glue).

With all of the titles focused on better strategy execution, it’s easy to wonder if there is anything new left to be written that is worthy of close study. In this case, I found it to contain some true insights in its focus and message.

The first contribution of the book is a pictorial description of the organizational activities needed for strategy execution. It is referred to as the Strategy Execution Framework, or SEF. While not necessarily a new concept, the book does display an unusually clear set of inter-related linkages between the organizational activities –- all the way from the highest strategic planning activities down to the front lines of tactical project management.

So, my first recommendation is to read the book with any eye toward fully appreciating the inter-relationships between the areas in the SEF. Reflect on if they exist and how they operate in your own organization. This is an important seed to plant in your mind.

Second, focus on Chapter 4. To me, the acute specialty of this book is in its assertion that most organizations fail in strategy execution because executives do not understand and personally take part in the alignment, selection, and oversight of projects, programs, and portfolios that work ‘on the business,’ ‘in the business’, and on ‘transforming the business.’ As a seasoned practitioner, I could not agree more.

I recommend reading ‘Executing Your Strategy’ with the specific intent of figuring out how to improve this gap in your own organization. Nearly every organization I’ve worked with has this weakness to some degree. Solving this issue could be one of the most significant changes in your organization for the New Year.