This document discusses common challenges, mistakes, and pitfalls that companies face when developing and implementing strategies. It notes that 95% of employees do not understand their company's strategy, 78% of workers would work harder with better recognition, and 70% of strategic initiatives fail to meet objectives. It provides dos and don'ts for addressing issues like having too narrow a view of strategy, lack of organizational alignment, overreliance on data without insights, unrealistic growth objectives, and overestimating strengths. The document aims to help companies develop effective strategies and avoid common strategic planning failures.

1. HOW TO AVOID THE MOST
COMMON STRATEGY
CHALLENGES
MISTAKES
PITFALLS
Rita Batalha • @ritabatalha •
uk.linkedin.com/in/ritabatalha

2. Every year
companies
attempt to create
a winning strategy
innovation content
profit marketing
finance people
supply chain

3. But yet they fail to implement it
“ 95% of employees
do not understand their “ 78% of American
company’s strategy ”
workers would work
harder if they were
CHALLENGES
better recognized ”
“ 70% of strategic MISTAKES
initiatives fail to meet “ Only 10%
their objectives ”
PITFALLS
of effort and resources
is invested to develop
a strategy ”
“ 80% of change
failure is attributable
to human factors
”

4. “Strategy ≠ Marketing, Mobile & Digital”
1
Mistake: thinking of strategy from a very narrow perspective i.e.,
technology, marketing activity or a single event.
Dos
:: Select or adapt a framework to guide your main strategic forces - e.g.,
Diamond model, 5Forces, Balanced scorecard etc.
:: Identify current and future positioning goals
:: Separate strategy from activities and budget - those are natural pieces
of a strategy, and not the strategy by itself
:: Build insight on markets, customers and environment

5. “We're not align”
2
Challenge: to create a common sense of purpose and shared
commitment across the organisation.
Dos
:: Communicate in one/two sentences what is company’s purpose
:: Set up soft and hard KPI’s for each team/department
:: Plan an end-to-end process map - “who does what and when“
:: Organise workshops to review activities and performance
:: Promote collaboration, transparency and debate
:: Empower people to be and do their best

6. “Metrics are easy, insights are hard”
3
Pitfall: 2013 is all about data. But more data doesn’t mean more or
better insight. In fact, 63% of leaders make poor decisions when
attempting to tease out insights from data.
Dos
:: Choose 4/5 critical sources of information
:: Marry qualitative and quantitative data
:: Recruit the person(s) who is(are) motivated to do that job
:: Share the insight with other departments – ask feedback

7. “My objective is to grow ”
4
Mistake: many organisation don’t know how to translate their mission
into realistic and meaningful objectives. And others focus solely on
income/profit KPIs.
Dos
:: Reunite your senior staff and discuss your company’s positioning in the
long-term (and don’t focus solely on numbers!)
:: Identify the crucial capabilities in your value chain to achieve your
company’s ambition
:: Create objectives using the SMART approach

8. “We’re a start-up, we don’t need a strategy”
5
Challenge: every company needs a strategy. Even start-ups. Without a
strategy is very likely your business will never grow.
Dos
:: Build a tactical plan for 3 months period (and review it afterwards)
:: Focus on 2 areas that are crucial to promote your service and/or
product
:: Combine your intuition with other’s professionals advice

9. “My strength is customer service”
6
Pitfall: is also very common to overestimate your strengths. An area of
strength for strategy purposes to be something you can do better than
your rivals do.
Dos
:: Ask feedback to your customer and other stakeholders through
surveys, focus groups, meeting etc..
:: Innovation might be the key. Explore new business approaches and
market trends.

10. Sources
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/10/24/failed-strategy-execution-oversight-by-corporate-
boards/
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Sc-Str/Strategic-Planning-Failure.html
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/five_common_strategy_mistakes.html
http://newmediaandmarketing.com/the-disconnect-between-strategy-and-execution/online-
branding-marketing/
http://www.globoforce.com/mood-tracker-spring-2012-report
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasivarsson/4893862500

11. THANK YOU!
I am happy to hear your thoughts:
Rita Batalha • @ritabatalha •
uk.linkedin.com/in/ritabatalha