Strategy execution

When business conditions change, the most successful companies are often the slowest to adapt. To avoid being left behind, executives must understand the true sources of corporate inertia.

Recently, I asked some business executives for their top three IT wishes. Across the board, their responses echoed a common plea: “I wish IT projects would come in on time and on budget.” Funny thing is – this very reasonable sounding request is actually quite unreasonable. You see, we are no longer simply automating existing […]

A second generation of electronic commerce is emerging, one that will be shaped more by strategy than by experimentation. The battle for competitive advantage will be waged along three dimensions: reach, affiliation, and richness.

Learning should be guided by a company’s strategy and execution.

Hundreds of books on business growth are published each year, but which ones are really worth reading? Harvard Business School professor Pankaj Ghemawat...

The three are different, though their boundaries are hard to draw.

Buried in the news reports of the past two weeks, with hardly any fanfare or attention, was a report by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that it lost $3.8 billion in fiscal year 2009. This was despite reducing expenses by $6 billion, eliminating 40,000 jobs, and reducing payments for retiree health benefits by $4 billion. […]

These 12 traits of the truly data-driven can make your company more profitable.

Of all the meetings top executives attend in a year, none is more important than the strategy off-site, where the most essential conversations for the...

What makes for a good strategy in highly uncertain business environments? How do executives choose a clear strategic direction when no amount of sophisticated...

A process for getting the right people aligned.

How the three Fs-facts, faith, and fortitude-can create a persuasive business case as well as a roadmap for new initiatives.

The winners in business play hardball, and they don't apologize for it. They single-mindedly pursue competitive advantage and the benefits it offers:...

“Failure to communicate strategy causes frontline workers to invent their own strategy.” —Survey respondent In March, we surveyed members of the HBR Advisory Council (a representative group of readers we periodically turn to for insights) about strategy and execution in their organizations. We asked how well they think strategy is developed, which obstacles prevent implementation, […]

Stick to the broad strategic guidelines but adapt your tactics if the market shifts.

The age of competitive strategy may be past. Sophisticated managers are learning that handsome returns come directly from superior strategic execution--not...

You would think that savvy, sophisticated companies would have an easy time figuring out whether a move they are considering would blow up on them, wouldn't...

Don’t make the plan too rigid.

A couple of years ago, I coauthored with Rob Lachenauer an article called “Hardball: Five Killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competition.” The piece, along with a subsequent book, was misunderstood by many people. Critics said that hardball meant playing dirty or mean, neither of which is true. What is true is that hardball—let’s face it, […]

Donald Sull, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, gets to the source of the problem and offers recommendations for translating strategy...