Overview

CEOs regularly identify strategic execution as their biggest challenge, and the top priority facing today's business leaders. Based on their research with senior executives across a variety of industries-and including firms like Marriott, Microsoft, SunTrust, UPS, and Vail Resorts-Kenneth J. Carrig and Scott A. Snell have distilled the elements that are most critical for execution. This book addresses the challenges of execution, why it matters, and why the approach remains elusive. It introduces an integrated framework for understanding four priorities underlying execution excellence. Ultimately, it all comes down to alignment, agility, ability, and architecture. The authors lay out a process for applying the framework, helping business leaders to diagnose their challenges and to determine their path toward breakthrough performance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kenneth J. Carrig ,  Scott A. Snell
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford Business Books,US
ISBN:  

9781503603592

ISBN 10:   1503603598
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   17 September 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Contents and Abstracts1The CEO's Top Challenge chapter abstractThis chapter provides an introduction to the book, its underlying premise that execution—more so than strategy alone—is the key driver of organizational performance. The chapter summarizes the impetus of the research; its approach, design, and participating companies; as well as the initial findings from a series of executive roundtables. The research evidence suggests that execution is a big challenge and that most companies do not have a systematic approach. As a consequence, the keys to effectiveness prove to be elusive, and senior executives expressed a desire to ""find a better way."" The chapter provides insight to why these challenges exist and the specific approach taken in this book to address the discipline of strategic execution. The chapter ends with a summary of the execution profiles of five companies: Marriott, Microsoft, SunTrust, UPS, and Vail Resorts. 2The 4A Framework: Focus Resources and Energy chapter abstractThis chapter provides an overview of the conceptual foundation for the 4A framework of execution excellence: Alignment, Ability, Architecture, and Agility. Where companies have problems, these are the most troublesome areas. And when they achieve performance breakthroughs, these are the areas that drive improvement. The chapter also emphasizes that the four elements operate as an interactive system, reinforcing one another and creating mutually dependent effects. The chapter discusses how the 4A framework can be seen as depicting the interplay among human and organizational resources as well as potential and kinetic energy. For convenience, these points are summarized in a 2x2 framework. 3Alignment: The Imperative of Shared Intent chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the challenge of achieving strategic alignment. Executives consistently and emphatically stress that alignment—everyone working together toward the same outcome—is both the most important factor in execution and the first that needs to be addressed in order to improve performance. When aligned, organizations bring disparate elements together into a unified whole, providing clarity of purpose and direction. This chapter lays out the threats to alignment, diverting collective effort and traction. It also addresses the most important practices and approaches for achieving alignment: clarifying the strategic intent of the organization, elevating shared expectations for performance rooted in the organization culture, and building a system of mutual accountability. 4Ability: The Power of Talent chapter abstractThis chapter address the importance of leadership, talent, and collaborative capability in strategic execution. Many firms find themselves chronically short of talent, a phenomenon known as ""the talent syndrome."" This chapter shares some of the key lessons for boosting talent capacity, beginning with the importance of the CEO and senior leadership team. It also addresses building a differentiated talent model, identifying critical positions, and the key approaches for developing a robust pool of talent. Like any capital investment, the ""make or buy"" decisions for talent require tough choices about where performance payoffs will be greatest. Finally, the chapter addresses collaborative capability as an important ""talent multiplier"" leveraging the knowledge and skills of each person to help others perform more effectively. 5Architecture: The Clarity of Design and Process chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the importance of organization architecture in strategic execution. The design of the organization, as well as its underlying infrastructure, processes, technologies, and controls makes a big difference in terms of reliability, scalability, and continuity of performance. In terms of strategy execution, the organizational architecture is critical for managing resource flows, information availability, decision making, and processes that propel the organization forward. Unfortunately, evidence shows that organization architecture often does just the opposite. The very structures, processes, and systems that are supposed to enable work often are the most entangling impediments to effective execution, slowing down decision making, and creating inefficient resource flows. 6Agility: The Speed of Change chapter abstractThis chapter addresses the importance of organization agility. In high-velocity environments, the ability to respond and adapt is critical for strategic execution. Agility is important because the requirements of success are dynamic. Agility has both reactive and proactive connotations. From a reactive standpoint, agility is the capacity to respond quickly and adjust to external disruption. But agile execution also has a more proactive connotation, getting out in front of change, innovating, learning, and creating disruption for others. This chapter addresses one of the most common inhibitors of agility, known as ""the execution paradox,"" where fervent attempts to drive performance and maximize efficiency create conditions that make the organization more rigid and actually make change more difficult. 7Using the 4A Framework: A Guide for Action chapter abstractThis chapter presents a guide for action, helping executives apply the principles and guidelines of the 4A framework to their own organizations. Most executives acknowledge that they do not have a systematic approach for assessing their preparedness or identifying key priorities for investing in execution capability. This chapter lays out a three-step approach for engaging others to improve execution capability. It emphasizes the importance of contextualizing the processes in a thorough business review, its economic imperative, market position, and operating model, as well as the gap between aspired and actual performance. It then provides an approach to more thoroughly assess the organization's current execution capability, using a self-assessment, establishing a capability profile, and the value of deeper data analytics. Finally, the chapter provides a way to improve the discipline of execution by build a playbook for intervention and action planning."

Reviews

Carrig and Snell provide a concise cross-section of business experiences against the backdrop of their 4A framework to create a thought-provoking blueprint for excellence in execution. -- William H. Rogers, CEO * SunTrust Banks * Strategic Execution distills decades of leadership experience into an actionable guide for companies, teams, and managers. If you want your company-or your team-to move faster, this is the book for you. -- Laszlo Bock * CEO of Humu, author of <i>Work Rules!</i>, and former Chief People Officer, Google * My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. This book can help both individuals and teams achieve this mission! -- Marshall Goldsmith * <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Triggers</i> and <i>What Got You Here Won't Get You There</i> * Strategic Execution offers an update to the classic book Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, addressing the same enduring challenges but with solutions designed for the Information Age. -- Laurie Siegel, Senior Advisor, G100 Network, and former Chief Human Resources Officer * Tyco International * Carrig and Snell have identified the most critical approaches to building truly great organizations. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to know what best-in-class leadership should look like today. -- Rob Katz, CEO * Vail Resorts * Ken Carrig and Scott Snell provide a framework that can be applied in any setting and draw on real-life examples to detail the elements of successful execution. -- Arne N. Sorenson, President & CEO, and David A. Rodriguez, Global Chief Human Resources Officer * Marriott International *

"""Ken Carrig and Scott Snell provide a framework that can be applied in any setting and draw on real-life examples to detail the elements of successful execution."" -- Arne N. Sorenson, President & CEO, and David A. Rodriguez, Global Chief Human Resources Officer * Marriott International * ""Carrig and Snell have identified the most critical approaches to building truly great organizations. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to know what best-in-class leadership should look like today."" -- Rob Katz, CEO * Vail Resorts * ""Strategic Execution offers an update to the classic book Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, addressing the same enduring challenges but with solutions designed for the Information Age."" -- Laurie Siegel, Senior Advisor, G100 Network, and former Chief Human Resources Officer * Tyco International * ""My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. This book can help both individuals and teams achieve this mission!"" -- Marshall Goldsmith * <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Triggers</i> and <i>What Got You Here Won't Get You There</i> * ""Strategic Execution distills decades of leadership experience into an actionable guide for companies, teams, and managers. If you want your company—or your team—to move faster, this is the book for you."" -- Laszlo Bock * CEO of Humu, author of <i>Work Rules!</i>, and former Chief People Officer, Google * ""Carrig and Snell provide a concise cross-section of business experiences against the backdrop of their 4A framework to create a thought-provoking blueprint for excellence in execution."" -- William H. Rogers, CEO * SunTrust Banks *"

Carrig and Snell provide a concise cross-section of business experiences against the backdrop of their 4A framework to create a thought-provoking blueprint for excellence in execution. -- William H. Rogers, CEO Strategic Execution distills decades of leadership experience into an actionable guide for companies, teams, and managers. If you want your company-or your team-to move faster, this is the book for you. -- Laszlo Bock My mission is to help successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. This book can help both individuals and teams achieve this mission! -- Marshall Goldsmith Strategic Execution offers an update to the classic book Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, addressing the same enduring challenges but with solutions designed for the Information Age. -- Laurie Siegel, Senior Advisor, G100 Network, and former Chief Human Resources Officer Carrig and Snell have identified the most critical approaches to building truly great organizations. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to know what best-in-class leadership should look like today. -- Rob Katz, CEO Ken Carrig and Scott Snell provide a framework that can be applied in any setting and draw on real-life examples to detail the elements of successful execution. -- Arne N. Sorenson, President & CEO, and David A. Rodriguez, Global Chief Human Resources Officer

Author Information

Kenneth J. Carrig is former Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for SunTrust Banks. He now serves as an advisor to CEOs. He has been a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources since 2004. Carrig is co-author of Building Profit through Building People (SHRM, 2008), the proceeds of which benefit Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to fighting childhood hunger. Scott A. Snell is Professor of Business Administration and former Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business. He is co-author of several books, notably Management: Leading and Collaborating in a Competitive World, 12th Edition (McGraw-Hill, 2016) and Managing Human Resources, 18th Edition (Cengage, 2018).

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