© 2014 Cognizant © 2014 Cognizant

17th October 2014

Strategic Execution in times of uncertainty: How to move from Thinking to Doing

Ben Tye, Vice President (UK) – Programme Management.

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This is a time of great head scratching….

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The world is changing. .

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In many ways…

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The rise of the “vast, silent, unseen Second Economy”

“By 2025 the Second Economy will be as large as the 1995 physical economy”

W. Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute – McKinsey Quarterly, Oct 2011; http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/the_second_economy

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• Many firms are configured for the past and not unleashing their potential

value

• Plenty will face an extinction event unless they adapt

• Those that adapt successfully will thrive

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We are entering a new era of

business models and processes

What are the implications for strategy execution?

What should we do about them?

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The conversion of strategic intent into

reality through the successful delivery

of integrated initiatives focused on

common objectives

“STRATEGIC EXECUTION”

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Strategic Execution Capability will become increasingly

more important than Strategic Thinking…

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… and yet the stats don’t look good at all….

Source: 2013 PMI Pulse of the Profession

For every $1B of programme investment, poor performers risk wasting 14 TIMES

more than high performers

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.. even execution at the basic PROJECT level remains poor.

1Source: : Project Management Institute

2013 Pulse of the Profession.

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In spite of the plethora of methodologies available..

• PMI

• PMBOK

• Critical Chain

• Agile

• Extreme

• Event Chain

• Deliverable based

• Risk Based

• CMMI

• SPICE

• APM

• PRINCE

• PRINCE II

• GAPS

• PRINCESS

• PROMPT

• HERMES

• WATERFALL

• ISO 9000

• ISO10006

• V-Modell

• Team Software Process

• Total Cost Management

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22% of all businesses risk

losing £/28m for every

£/100m invested

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Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet

The environment IS complex…

But there are some basic things to get

right…

• Translating strategy into ACTION

• Choosing the right execution model

for YOUR organisation

• Active governance and assurance via

effective PMO

• MOBILISE and PLAN properly

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Translating Strategy to Action (Doing the right things)

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Execution - Doing things the right way for you….

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Active & Agile Assurance through EFFECTIVE PMO

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Mobilisation – Engage the clutch properly

• Often the best people are “not available” for mission

critical projects

• A history of failure of large scale strategic initiatives

means that few people see them as career

advancement opportunities

• What happens when it’s over? Concern about ”leaving”

a role or career path that is going well means teams are

often difficult to staff

• Programs often start with a limp rather than a bang

eroding delivering confidence

• No consistent, structured way to enable and empower

the team to perform effectively from Day One.

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Little thought has been given to creating high performance

teams in a focused, structured and repeatable way at the start

of major initiatives

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The objective of an Effective Mobilisation is to resolve the SIX

critical areas essential for any successful Strategic Execution

• Ensuring clarity of purpose, outputs, approach, control,

assurance, reporting – all the “HARD” elements need

to be nailed down URGENTLY

• Building a solid integrated plan that is thoroughly

understood and bought into by the team

• Embedding a consistent approach, and supporting

toolset and ENSURING the team use them!

• Getting the right people in the right roles as fast as

possible – and redirecting/removing/reskilling as

required

• Creating an Esprit rapidly that surmounts the “SOFT”

issues experienced by all new teams

• Forcing the team up the development curve as far as

possible, as quickly as possible

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Success is achieved through pragmatism and experience..

• Experience: applying domain and delivery experience to drive successful execution

• Benefits: focus on driving maximum value from business change and technology

investments

• Risk: proactive management of the potential pitfalls to delivery and benefits realisation

• Action: preventing ‘failure through inertia’ by driving actions and critical decision making

• Management: providing the disciplined environment to assure delivery.

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© 2014 Cognizant

Ben Tye

ben.tye@cognizant.com

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For further information on this

presentation or to discuss

successful Strategic Execution

please do contact me directly.