Executing Strategy - Biggest obstacles companies face - A Simple Approach for Better Execution Robert L. Simons

Description:

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution, Robert L. Simons

Title: How to Stress-Test Your Strategy
Robert L. Simons, Harvard Business School professor, explains why management teams must ask themselves tough questions. 

Biggest obstacles companies face in terms of executing their strategies / Why is executing strategy so hard?

Background information

Bob Simons is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. During the last 25 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy implementation courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. During 2009/2010 he is teaching a new second-year MBA course, "Designing Organizations for Performance," a module in the CEO program, and "Driving Corporate Performance," a program for financial executives and general managers.  A new book based on this work, Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution, will be published in 2010 by Harvard Business Press.

Systems and Structures for Implementing Strategy

Professor Robert Simons’ research encompasses three areas of management accountability that are the foundation for successful strategy implementation: organization design, performance measurement and control, and risk management. In addition, Simons is interested in the role of management and management education in society.

Simons’ most recent work focuses on understanding the role of organization design as a key determinant in the successful implementation of strategy.

Simons studies four key variables—customer definition, critical performance variables, creative tension, and commitment to others—that serve as the basic inputs to effective organization design. Using an integrated framework, his work shows how managers can design unit structures, diagnostic control systems, influence networks, and shared responsibilities to build a foundation for profitable growth.