Managing Risk in Strategy Execution – Part 1
At first glance, it may seem strange to talk about strategy execution and risk management in the same breath. After all, isn’t strategy execution about taking risks? And isn’t risk management about minimising them?
If this is your view, you are not alone.
Risk management should play at part in strategy execution. After all, strategy execution implies change – entering new markets, targeting new customer segments, developing new products, changing business or operating models, deploying new technologies, executing mergers and acquisitions, the list goes on – and, change is always risky.
Continue Reading October 28, 2011 at 9:19 pm Leave a comment
How to speed up strategy execution
There is a certain sense of elation a leader gets when a new strategy is launched, the “troops” have been briefed, and the energy around the place becomes palpable, when everyone seems to have a sense of where they need to be going, perhaps for the first time in a long while.
Unfortunately, over a period of weeks and months, the leader’s elation often turns into impatience, and then even panic and despair, when nothing seems to be happening. How do you, as leader, know whether “nothing” is actually the quiet buzz of activity and progress, or whether “nothing” is really “nothing”? How do you know whether your people are setting themselves up for success, and how do you accelerate strategy execution? Read on for 5 things you should watch out for.
Character, Culture, and Change
Whether you lead a Finance, Risk, HR, IT or other support function, at some stage of your career you will probably find yourself faced with the task of transforming your function to better align with changing business strategy, or simply to improve effectiveness. Despite the plethora of change management courses, specialists, methodologies, and tools, ultimately the success of any change effort depends on leadership. You can delegate or outsource change management diagnostics, communication planning, or organisational design, but the buck stops with you when it comes to leadership.
Can Finance Managers Lead Change?
Not long ago, a consulting client of mine – a seasoned, senior Finance Manager – confided in me that he’s anxious about the need to lead his team through a major change that is being driven from the top. “This change is the most important strategic initiative we’ve had in years. I have to prepare the team so that their performance levels are maintained during the change. Our guys have to help the rest of the business come to grips with the change too. There’s a lot at stake here – I can’t afford to drop the ball on this one. This ‘change management’ stuff is so hard for us finance guys – it’s so fluffy!”
Having worked with finance functions over most of the last decade, I know that he is far from alone in feeling daunted by the prospect of leading major organisational change. What is it about finance professionals that make it hard for us to “do” change management? And is there anything we can do to improve finance managers’ change leadership capability? I decided to explore this topic further.
