Three Reasons Strategies Fail

3
84

Share on LinkedIn

I was recently with a business strategist from a Fortune 500 company who stated there were ultimately three reasons corporate strategies fail. Even though he was speaking of overarching corporate strategies, the three reasons align with what I have seen related to customer strategies:

  1. You measure the wrong things – Good strategy is the result of careful, intelligent analysis; however, the old maxim “garbage in, garbage out” applies here. In customer strategy consulting, this can be the result of jumping on the bandwagon of the latest killer metric without a full analysis of whether or not the metric actually applies to your industry. One way to avoid this shortcoming would be to conduct a pre-program strategic assessment – this step will allow you to learn not only the key customer touchpoints, but also identify the critical needs of key stakeholders in the process. It will also help you make certain you are profiling the customers the right way and focusing on the most critical.
  2. You make the wrong decisions – Even if you measure the right data, there is no guarantee you will make the right decisions. Some of this is related to the data itself – in customer strategy consulting, using statistical methods that allow us to determine which areas of focus will have the greatest impact on customer loyalty will provide some insulation against focusing on the wrong areas. There is, however, another source of potential error – and that is the direction of where the market in total is heading. Every decision is framed not only by the data you observe, but also by your outlook on the competitive environment in general. To ensure you get it right, there are three recommendations I would make:
  • Include competitive assessments in your loyalty measurement program – Having an idea on your position relative to the competition can help fine-tune your analysis. You can read more about benchmarking options in this series.
  • Commit to ongoing measurement – This does not necessarily mean an ongoing data collection effort; rather, it is about knowing when to re-assess the customer landscape to ensure you are accounting for all the relevant issues. Most clients do this every 18 to 24 months at a minimum.
  • Build macro and micro-level strategic plans – The overall strategy that emerges from the statistical analysis is best used in the context of focal areas that have the greatest impact on the greatest number of customers; however, building more micro-level, customer-based action plans will ensure you are accounting for the individual differences that exist among customers.
  1. You do not take action – This is the one we tend to see the most. I once worked with a person who was prone to saying “strategy is cheap; execution is hard.” When I first heard him say this, I thought he was saying that strategy was simple; I now realize what he meant was that even though strategy can be hard, it is infinitely more difficult to execute on a plan of attack you know is correct. The phenomenon of acting in ways that are not in your best interest is less about intelligence and more about discipline. I tend to use diet and exercise as an example – I know I should exercise more and eat less, but it is far easier to do the opposite. We at Walker have designed a framework to help navigate the key disciplinary elements needed to take action – namely, organization, process, communication, and motivation.

Certainly there are many reasons strategies can fail; however, I suspect that most of the reasons would fit into this framework. Being mindful of the potential pitfalls that may exist can help you be more proactive in building a plan that will maximize your probability of success.

Mark A. Ratekin
Sr. Vice President, Consulting Services

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Mark Ratekin
Mark is responsible for assisting clients in identifying and quantifying the financial linkage of their customer loyalty management programs. He plays an active role in translating program findings and conclusions into actionable recommendations and works with management and employees to facilitate the implementation of program findings into quality improvement strategies.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Mark,

    Firstly, I would like to thank you for the nice article shared by you. I agree with you on the 3 Reasons stated by you for strategy failure. I loved the part where you have stated "strategy is cheap; execution is hard.” It in fact is a major problem faced by many. Making a strategy should include one more point that is include internal assessment along with competitive assessment, B’coz it is the strengths & weaknesses of your internal assessment that will decide the success or failure of the strategy. However good the strategy is, it is going to be driven by the internal force & their assessment is important along with the assessment of the organisation. Finally it is the human touch that will be driving it.

  2. Thank you for your comment. I agree that an assessment of your internal structure and readiness for this kind of program is a must; in fact, all good strategic assessments will examine both the external and internal landscape. This assessment also provides insight early on as to how to set up the program to foster action – which is the core essence of moving from strategic to an executional perspective. Thanks again.

    Mark

  3. Thanks for the tips…you made some good point here. Even if you have the best strategy if it is not implemented or implemented wrongly, then it will fail.

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here