THE STRATEGY TRAP

In this handbook, a corporate strategist emphasizes the importance of executing plans well.

“Across industries, something similar happens all the time,” writes Ertell, who describes a generic business leader’s “bold new strategy at an all-hands meeting.” Despite the top-down enthusiasm regarding the visionary idea, the strategy’s initial oomph fades within months: “Priorities shift. Communication breaks down. Details get muddled, and momentum stalls.” Ertell cites a statistic that 90% of organizations fail to successfully execute strategies. In this guidebook, the author encourages organizational leaders to avoid the titular “Strategy Trap” of focusing on attention-grabbing visionary strategies while “short-changing the conditions people need to successfully turn them into reality.” Ertell centers the book on what he calls the “Six Cs,” and divides the book into six corresponding parts, with each offering multiple chapters of detailed advice. To start, the author urges a “Co-Creation” model for shaping a strategy at its start, incorporating the views of the rank-and-file employees who will be tasked with implementing it. This is accompanied by “Clarity” and “Capacity,” both of which emphasize specificity in defining the plan and ensuring that resources and time are available to execute it. These efforts, Ertell says, should also include meaningful and effective “Communication” and “Coordination” among various teams. The concluding section highlights the importance of “Coaching,” whereby leadership continually supports their teams and reinforces accountability, which, in turn, helps to maintain momentum.

Each of these “Six Cs” make intuitive sense, although some may find them simplistic; that said, the author makes a convincing case of how easily even battle-hardened corporate executives can lose sight of best practices when driven by a new vision. This guidebook includes more than 80 endnotes and insights gleaned from the author’s conversations with several Fortune 500 CEOs, which he blends with accounts of his own experiences as a business executive. The author not only shares his personal successes—which include achieving a senior VP position at Tower.com and working on strategic initiatives with Borders, Nike, and other corporations—but, notably, his failures as well. For instance, he describes the initial flop of a Borders customer-rewards program he helped create, highlighting early failures related to poor execution—specifically, securing buy-in from cashiers who “don’t care as much about corporate priorities as they care about the customer standing right in front of them.” Meaningful execution of the rewards-program strategy didn’t occur, he says, until leadership shifted their focus to the employees on the ground. The book also provides occasional examples outside corporate America, such as the work of Lin-Manuel Miranda in getting his vision of the musical Hamilton to the stage. Although the book features many engaging anecdotes from business leaders, this is fundamentally a practical reference work centered on “the real, day-to-day challenges of executing strategies.” Ertell eschews lengthy narratives and instead employs an efficient writing style that prioritizes bulleted lists and practical checklists. The book also includes ample text-box vignettes, charts, diagrams, and other visual elements.

A user-friendly tool for turning strategy into reality.