The Other
Blokes Blog

Guy Kawasaki‘s blog often has thought-provoking content and his post entitled Ten Questions with Jeffrey Pfeffer continued the tradition. Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Every answer is on the ball but I particularly liked his response to Question 16.

Question: What role should strategic planning play in the management of an organization?
Answer: Doing the right thing is important, which is where strategy comes in. But doing that thing well?execution?is what sets companies apart. After all, every football play is designed to go for a huge gain. The reason it doesn?t is because of execution?people drop balls, miss blocks, go to the wrong place, and so forth. So, success depends on execution?on the ability to get things done.

In general, successful execution will take much more effort and persistence than developing the successful strategy. It’s good to see it getting the attention it deserves.

Related:
Execution, the discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy, et al.
The gap between strategy and execution