From Strategy to Execution

Daniel Pantaleo and Nirmal Pal review strategy and execution approaches and recommend business changes. Business leaders around the world are striving to address the need for change and innovation in their business models. Product and service innovation is still a top priority. Firms are also rethinking their business models (e.g., value chains, resource management, and financial models). This is precipitated in part due to growing number of knowledge workers and a need to align everyone in the organization to business strategies.

Globalization: New countries are quickly becoming economic powerhouses
Innovation: Significant Innovation are underway in business models, products and services
Strategic analysis: New tools and analytical methods are critical in understanding and responding to opportunities and problems.
Access to knowledge: Organizations today depend more than ever upon knowledge workers. Organization’s needs to learn what motivates knowledge workers, and how they can best communicate with each other and the organization.
Information technology: IT is beginning to become more business driven
Small and medium-sized businesses: Information is easily accessible, technology less expensive, and workers who are more capable, innovative and resourceful.

Changes Underway

Economists with ING stated in 2013 that the world's total debt is $223.3 trillion. This number includes government-sector, financial-sector, household or corporate debt . Over 70 percent of this debt, or $157 trillion, is in developed economies. Around 30% or $66.3 trillion of this debt is in emerging economies. Public-sector was $55.7 trillion, financial sector $75.3 trillion, and household or corporate debt was $92.3 trillion. Within the U.S. the total indebtedness is $176,833 per-capita. In other developed economies it is $170,401. In emerging economies it is $11,621

The New Economy

Customer power : Increase access to information is improving transparency. Customers today are not only impacting how business designs their products, but the business models used to produce and deliver the products.
Manufacturing is waning: The need for services and information are increasing and manufacturing and agricultural work is on the decline
Access to capital: A global economic is making more sources of capital available, however, the degree of risk is also increasing
Compliance pressures: Regulations become more rigorous
New business models: Firms are changing their business models
Business-driven IT: A growing number of CIOs have backgrounds in non-IT areas, and are playing a larger role in developing new business models.

New Business Models

Making incremental improvement to products or services was sufficient in the past. Today, the goal is to delight customers quicker and more effectively than anyone in the market. More penetrating questions are being asked of customers resulting in new business models, such as:

What job are you trying to accomplish with this product or service?
How effectively does this product or service help you to accomplish this job?
How can this product or service be provided at substantially lower costs, higher quality, and in a quicker time frame?

From Strategy to Execution

Highlights by David Willden