Andrew Penn, CEO of AXA, a global insurance group, stated, "I believe that most companies fail because they fail to implement what they had planned, not because it was a bad plan in the first place. Ultimately it is good execution more than strategy that separates leaders from players in the market place. Ultimately the role of the CEO is to provide a clear vision and ensure it is well executed." 

Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, concurred "a leader is someone who can develop a vision of what he or she wants their business to be and then relentlessly drives implementation of that vision to a successful conclusion."

"About half of the job of management is trying to figure out where the company is going to be 5 to 10 years down the road, and the second half is execution" according to Robert Crandall, former CEO of AMR Corporation and American Airlines.

In the book Execution, the Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan emphasize that an organization can only execute if the leader's heart and soul are immersed in the company.  The leader must be personally engaged and deeply invested in the success of the business.  Bossidy and Charan emphasize that the leader gets things done through three core processes:  picking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and establishing a clear operating plan.

THE THREE ESSENTIAL PROCESSES

1.     People Process-this process is the more important of the three as it's the people of an organization who make judgments about how markets are changing, create strategies based on these judgments, and translate the strategies based on those judgments into operational realities.  As Bossidy and Charan say, "if you don't get the people process right, you will never fulfill the potential of your business."

The People Process is based on:

• Linkage to the strategic plan and the operating plan targets
• Developing the leadership pipeline with continuous improvement and succession
• Planning and decisive behavior for what to do about non-performers

Questions to ask: Who are the people that are going to execute the strategy?  Can they do it? Do you have the right people in place to execute the strategy? If not, how will you get them? Have you prepared your people for handling the jobs of tomorrow?

2.     Strategy Process - the basic goal of this process is to win the customer's preference and create a sustainable advantage, while leaving sufficient money on the table for shareholders.  It defines a business's direction and positions it to move in that direction.

The Strategic Process is based on:

• Attention to the "hows" of executing the strategy
• Substance and detail that comes from the minds of the people closest to the action, those who understand the markets, their resources, and their strengths and weaknesses
• A strategic plan that business leaders can rely on to reach their business objectives
• Alignment with people processes and your operating plan

Questions to ask:  What is the assessment of the external environment? How well do you understand existing customers and markets? Who is the competition? What are crucial issues facing the business? How best to grow the business profitably and what are the obstacles?  Can the business execute the strategy? Are short and long term goals balanced? What are the important milestones for executing the plan?

3.     Operations Process - The strategy process defines where a business wants to go, and the people process defines who's going to get it there. The operating plan provides the path for those people.  It breaks long-term output into short-term targets and looks forward to the "hows."  In the operating plan, the leader is primarily responsible for overseeing the transition from strategy to operations. 

The Operations Process is based on:

• Programs your business is going to complete within one year to reach desired levels of objectives such as earnings, sales, margins, and cash flow.
• Assumptions that are linked to reality and debated by finance and those that have to execute
• Specifics for how the various parts of the business will be synchronized to achieve targets, deals with trade-offs that need to be made, contingencies and opportunities
•  Continuous learning, course corrections and coaching of talent

Questions to ask:  What effects will the growth or decline of the GDP, the level of interest rates, and inflation have on the specific businesses covered by the operating plan?  What happens if an important customer changes plans in a big way?  Are targets based on what business wants to achieve but also what it is likely to achieve?  How do you, as a leader, plan and participate in reviews to think about and debate the results?  How can you plan on using these reviews for coaching sessions?

Reflections: 

• As you position your organization for 2011, have you assessed each of these core processes?

• Have you focused adequately on the "people pipeline" as you develop your internal team and recruit for external talent?  Do you involve team members and coach them during internal operations reviews to make course corrections?

• Are the people and operations processes carefully linked to the strategic plan and are your people clear on their responsibilities across these essential processes?