1. Driving Strategic Initiatives
© 2009 IIR Holdings, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2. Today’s Presenters
Jocelyn Davis
EVP, Research & Development
Maggie Walsh
Practice Leader
Steve Barry
Director, Strategic Marketing
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4. Strategy Execution Success Rates Consistently Low
5 80% of major systems
1 67-80% of TQM investments not
programs do used/not delivering
not create intended impact
desired results 3 70% of 7 Global study of 1,500
reengineering executives: 62% of
initiatives fail change initiatives fail
to create desired
performance results
1990 1993 1995 1996 1998 2000 2002 2006 2010
2 100-company 6 40-company study of major
study: well over 4 70% of business- change initiatives: 58% did
50% of change
critical change not gain expected returns
initiatives failed
efforts fail to achieve
expected results
1. Stephen E. Brigham, “TQM: Lessons We Can Learn from Industry,” Change, May-June 1993; Peter Senge et al., The Dance of Change (NY: Currency,
1999).
2. John P. Kotter, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” Harvard Business Review, February 2000.
3. Daryl R. Conner, Leading at the Edge of Chaos (NY: John Wiley, 2004).
4. 1998 Business Intelligence Study cited in David Miller, “Successful Change Leader,” Journal of Change Management, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 359-368.
5. Gartner Group (2000) cited in David Miller, ibid.
6. J. A. Clair and R. P. Rao, “Helping Employees Embrace Change,” McKinsey Quarterly, no. 4, 2002.
7. “Organizing for Successful Change Management: A McKinsey Global Survey,” June 2006, www.mckinseyquarterly.com.
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5. Our Research on Strategic Speed
Literature review: >500 books and
articles
Global survey with The Economist
Intelligence Unit
18 case studies: organizations around
the world
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6. Among Our Many Findings …
Leaders in fast companies
use four key practices to
increase speed:
Affirming strategies
Driving initiatives
Managing climate
Cultivating experience
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7. Key Practice for Leaders: Driving Initiatives
Driving initiatives is:
Following through on the execution of strategies.
Leaders must do more than passively sponsor
strategies; they must get behind the wheel.
The big mistake to watch for is:
Assuming that once you’ve communicated the
essence of a strategy and gained people’s
initial buy-in, your work is done.
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8. Driving Initiatives: Three Points
1. Identify and structure the specific initiatives and projects that will
move your strategy forward.
2. Staff those initiatives with capable, dedicated teams.
3. Go beyond passive sponsorship to execute on the initiatives, using
seven success factors as a guide.
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9. Point 1: Identify and structure the initiatives and projects
that will move your strategy forward
OWNERS INITIATIVE LEVELS
Business Strategy
Leaders …
Initiative Strategic Strategic Strategic
Leaders … Initiative Initiative Initiative
Project
Leaders … Project Project Project
Stream Project Project Project
Leaders … Stream Stream Stream
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10. Point 2: Staff those initiatives with capable, dedicated
teams
Give them time to do the job
Perspective: It’s a job
“Hire” the right people for the job
Equip them to do the job
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11. Point 3: Execute on initiatives using seven success factors
as a guide
Team Capability
Deploy strong 1
execution teams
Employee Support
7
Amplify manager and
frontline participation Course Correction
Create a robust 2
coordination system
Leadership Involvement
6 Spotlight leadership
visibility and consensus Behavior Change
Make the changes 3
clear and real
Change Magnitude
5 Keep things simple Work Effort
and consistent 4 Acknowledge and manage
workload pressure
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12. A Deeper Dive into a Few of the Success Factors
Course Correction
– Measure, review, empower
Behavior Change
– Most overlooked by leaders
Work Effort
– Get workload under control first
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13. Case Study: Regional Health Insurance Company
The organization:
Merger of 4 insurance plans
“The Cause”
Strong execution focus
The initiative:
Shift to common platform
Mission critical
Initial attempt failed
$500M budget
“Build plane, fly plane”
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14. Critical Success Factors
Leadership Involvement
Course Correction
Team Capability
Work Effort
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15. Case Study: Results
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16. About Forum
Global professional services firm that mobilizes your people to embrace
the critical strategies of their organizations and accelerate results
Senior leaders turn to Forum when they need their people to rise to meet
an important challenge or opportunity without fail
Since 1971, we have partnered with clients to create and implement
large-scale, customized, people-driven solutions that accelerate business
performance, change, and growth
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17. Watch for Our Book: Harvard Business Press,
June 2010
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18. For More Information
To talk to Forum about our solutions for increasing strategic speed or to find out
more about anything you’ve heard today:
Call: 1 800 FORUM 11 (North America)
44 (0)20 7017 7183 (EMEA)
Email: heather.crafts@forum.com
Visit: www.forum.com
Blog: http://forumcorporation.wordpress.com
Have you missed our previous webinars in this series?
Ten Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution
Findings from a recent global survey by Forum and the EIU
Using Climate to Drive Employee Engagement
Visit www.forum.com
to listen to the recordings
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