Reasons for Failing of Implementation
Discussion Question 2 (50 points)
Briefly discuss twelve (12) reasons why strategy implementation can fail and twelve (12) safeguards that can prevent implementation from failing.
Strategic planning is critical for the success of any organization. Also, the plan must function and produce the anticipated results to be effective. Though most firms comprehend how much is at stake when implementing the strategic plan, the outcome is always the inverse of the expectations. Various attributes could directly influence the implementation of the strategic plan, and most of such factors can be easily avoided. However, failure encountered in this process is essential for the firm’s learning and development. The paper discusses numerous failures that can be encountered, the process, and how they can be avoided to ensure a successful implementation process with the ultimate objective of developing the firm according to an effective plan.
The first reason the implementation could fail is missing master plans and a vague or unsatisfactory strategy. The missing master plans plus a vague or unsatisfactory strategy is often a recipe for failure. When there is no improvement in the firm’s services, irrespective of the existence of a strategic plan, attaining the set objective would be challenging. Thus, it requires the active participation of all shareholders (Kombate & Kouadio, 2022). Since it is the procedure to enhance performance, the company should be on board with the strategic plan before implementation. Members of the company and other shareholders often lack a clear direction for the new strategy when there is no clear strategic vision. Another reason is the structural problems, which impact strategic plan implementation when the firm structure is based on the functional areas instead of the collaborative matrix structure (George, 2021). The structure must be changed to a formalized collaboration matrix to overcome such barriers. Nevertheless, the firm should ensure that focusing on structural transformations does not detract from the strategic plan.
Next, ineffective communication during the process. Communication is the foundation of the company. A company cannot function promptly without an active connection if the team members do not know the objectives to accomplish and when they cannot perform adequately. Communicating the plan to the workforce would help in organizational alignment since workers would fully comprehend the activities and tasks required to attain business objectives (Dai, Li, Xie, & Deng, 2022). Therefore, before implementing the strategic plan, the management should inform the teams of such plans, discuss the roles they would play, and reach an agreement. The fourth issue is unrealistic objectives. Success is often the most common result when the plan is tailored to the firm’s characteristics. Impractical expectations and objectives are a common reason for the failure of strategic plan implementation. Setting realistic growth objectives would assist the firm in attaining its goals and maintain the employees focused on accomplishing the desired results.
