The Role of Culture and Leader shipt

12 Pages 3051 Words

THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP
IN IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY

Abstract:
In today’s fast paced, cut throat business world, companies are required to effectively plan for long-term success. The giants like GE and Microsoft have always used their vision and backed it up with a plan to accomplish their goals. Though it was not always referred to as strategically managing, these companies have always had to analyze their position in their industry, market and environment, and strategically align themselves to succeed. Today, companies must move quickly and continue to change, as uncertainty is the paradigm. This requires companies to rely on sound strategic planning to allow them to take advantages of opportunities and leverage their strengths in their market. However, strategic planning is only one small aspect in being successful in the long run. Planning has become the easy part for most companies. Today the most difficult challenge for companies is implementing and executing their strategic plan so that it functions as designed. A great idea is useless if there is no rational way to transfer the idea to action. The same is true of a strategic plan if there isn’t proper implementation to make the plan successful.
Eric Beaudan states, “ The paradox of strategy implementation is that strategic thinkers overlook certain truisms that actually stop the execution. … the concept that when strategy and culture are at odds, culture always wins.” (1 p.2) This is the backbone of this paper: trying to understand how culture and leadership affect the implementation, and thus the success, of a strategic plan. Beaudan’s statement emphasizes that when managers try to implement a strategy without creating the intellectual and emotional framework for the organization, the people rebel and the strategy fails. The overlying assumption is that if an organization can align their culture and leadership with their strategy, then ...