Seven Rules for Executing Strategy

Good strategy is no guarantee of good results, especially if common errors in execution are not anticipated and avoided. Worse: “The causes of this strategy-to-performance gap are all but invisible to top management,” write Michael Mankins and Richard Steele, the authors of “Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance,” part of the HBR series, 10 Must Reads on Strategy (Harvard Business Review Press/Available now). “Leaders then pull the wrong levers in their attempts to turn around performance—pressing for better execution when they actually need a better strategy, or opting to change direction when they really should focus the organization on execution. The result: wasted energy, lost time, and continued underperformance.” Common mistakes include poor communication, inadequate direction, and undefined outcomes. The HBR series contains close views of topics by experts such as Michael Porter, James Collins, Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. For more information from HBR, click here .