BS: Focus On Execution First

Over 10 years ago Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Honeywell, and Ram Charan, an academic and consultant, wrote the book Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done. As a student of strategy, I read it quickly.

One thing kept gnawing at me, though, that still gnaws at me today. Get what done?

In November, Rosabeth Moss Kantor, a professor at Harvard Business School wrote an article in Harvard Business Review titled Smart Leaders Focus on Execution First and Strategy Second. The corollary being that stupid leaders focus on strategy first.

She ends the article with this bromide: "In short, encourage innovation, begin with execution, and name the strategy later." 

To which I say: bullshit!

In fact, if HBR bothered to search their own site, they would read a well thought out article called The Execution Trap. Perhaps the author, Roger Martin, a former University of Toronto professor and Dr. Kantor could battle it out in an educator's cage match. 

Let me tell you a true story of a recent soccer injury to my daughter. She was diagnosed by the team doctor with one condition, and the team trainers put together a program to reduce her pain during and after games. Their treatment did not work.

After the season, she went to our family practitioner. More tests. The result was a different diagnosis. She had been misdiagnosed by the team physician. No matter how well my daughter and the trainers executed on the treatment plan, they were treating the wrong ailment. 

Reminds me of Bain & Co.'s Michael Mankins quote:

"If you have a bad strategy, no amount of good execution will help."

When you get in your car in the morning to travel to a place where you do not know how to get there, what do you do? Punch in the address on your GPS, and build your route to that destination from your garage. Not so if you don't think the destination matters. So long as you execute turns, navigate traffic, and follow signs extremely well. No matter where you end up, it matters only if you drove there well. C'mon.

In more practical terms, if a bank's head of branches is building development plans for branch managers, they make choices. For example, should branch managers have small business banking in their curriculum, or retail wealth management? One would think that they would turn to their strategy to make the decision. If the bank's strategy is to be the top business bank in the markets where they have branches, the answer is clear. But without strategy, either can be correct, so long as the branch manager does well. 

There are areas of Dr. Kantor's article in which I agree with her. For example, "we found the perfect strategy" is a statement that has the credibility of "and they lived happily ever after". Chasing the perfect strategy is a fools game.

Chasing no strategy is the same, in my opinion. However, once a strategic direction is struck, the bank should build flexible processes to allow for alterations of course based on customer preferences, markets, and team capabilities. 

In fact, I agree with Dr. Kantor's four implementation imperatives:

1.  Question everything

2.  Inform everyone, then empower champions

3.  Keep relationships tight, and rules loose

4.  Modify quickly

All are execution imperatives. But without strategic direction, the zigging and zagging would waste resources to the point of ineffectiveness. 

Yes, Dr. Kantor, strategy matters.

~ Jeff

P.S. All this talk about execution reminds me of John McCay, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach. I couldn't find the YouTube video of his quote, but here is Rick Carlisle, former Dallas Mavericks head coach delivering it brilliantly.

Book Report: HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy

A Written on the cover is a definitive statement made by an entity that has supreme confidence in itself: "If you read nothing else on strategy, read these definitive articles from Harvard Business Review." Wow. And while we're at it, if you read no other blogs on banks, read Jeff For Banks. As much as I would like to believe it's true, I would also have to believe that a higher authority is leading the Denver Broncos on their improbable run. You and I both know that's not true... ???

But if a compendium of essays on vision, strategy, and execution written by luminaries such as Michael Porter, Jim Collins, and Michael Mankins interests you, then this book is for you. I'm pretty much a strategy junkie, and this book gave me fix after fix, every time I powered up the Kindle.

What I liked about the book:

1. Covers, in good detail, disciplines such as strategy development, strategy execution, decision rights, balanced scorecards, and vision;

2. Many essays were in "how to" format, such as how to develop your strategic principle;

3. Summarized key points in Idea in Practice segments.

What I didn't like about the book:

1. Not much. But if I had to pick something, it would be that the essays were penned by academics and/or consultants. It is instructive to hear from practitioners too, although the book is chock full of real world examples of idea implementation.

Do I trust Harvard Business Review to select the appropriate compendium on strategy? Well, no. I'm sure they have their bias and it flows through not only to the essays selected, but also the authors, as many are associated in some way with HBR. But I can't argue with any of their selections, and I am better for having read the book. I think you will be too.

~ Jeff

Book Report note: I will occasionally read books that I believe are relevant to the banking industry. To help you determine if the book is a worthwhile read for your purposes, I will review them here. My mother said if I did not have something nice to say about someone, then don’t say it. In that vein, I will only review books that I perceive to be a “B” grade or better. Disclosure: I will typically have the reviewed book on my Amazon.com bookshelf on the right margin of this blog. If you click on any book on the shelf and buy it, I receive a small commission; typically not enough to buy a Starbucks skinny decaf latte with a sugar-free caramel shot, but perhaps enough to buy a small coffee at Wawa.