Strategic Formulation Process and Techniques: How to Move from Strategy to Execution?

Many company leaders love to talk about strategy—whether it’s a sales strategy, product strategy, or talent strategy.

However, most of these strategies fail. In many cases, leaders habitually blame their subordinates for poor execution, but the root cause often lies elsewhere.

Recently, I shared insights on "from strategy to execution" in a book club livestream, and I’d like to share them with you.

Why Do Strategies Fail?

Based on my years of consulting experience, a company's strategy tends to fail for the following six reasons:

1. Lack of Vision The core of strategy is vision—seeing business opportunities and potential pitfalls that others can't. However, many leaders focus too narrowly on short-term gains, making their strategy inherently flawed.
2. Strategy Built on False Assumptions Often, strategic decisions are made on a whim, without proper validation. Leaders who make impulsive decisions often have an 80% chance of failure, as they haven’t assessed feasibility or risks.
3. Wrong People in Key Positions When key roles are mismatched with unqualified people, the strategy collapses. Hiring a misfit CEO for a new business unit, for example, can lead to failure.
4. Lack of Consensus, Siloed Work Execution falters when team members don’t agree on the strategy. Even if the leader sets a direction, lack of shared understanding among teams like product, tech, and sales undermines execution.
5. Insufficient Goal Breakdown Without clearly cascading goals down to departments and individuals, or improperly distributing them, strategy execution becomes impossible.
6. Goals Without Tactics Strategy often fails because goals are set without accompanying tactics. When critical steps for achieving goals are missing, the strategy remains unimplemented.

Key Points for Strategic Formulation

Strategic failure often arises from neglecting essential elements during formulation. Here are the key points:

1. Finding Strategic Vision: The "Five Looks"
2. Strategic Positioning: The "Three-in-One" Diagram Balance "Want to Do," "Can Do," and "Able to Do."
3. Building Competitive Advantage: Porter’s Five Forces Analyzing direct and indirect competitors to strengthen your competitive edge. Consider factors like scale, product differentiation, technology, funding, and sales channels.

Seven Steps from Strategy to Execution

Once you have a solid strategy, it’s time to execute:

1. Executive Training Begin by training the top management to ensure alignment on strategy and goals.
2. Company Diagnosis Conduct a comprehensive internal and external analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses.
3. Co-Creating Strategy, Goal Breakdown Host collaborative sessions to align on key strategies and break down goals across departments.
4. Organizational Design and Talent Assessment Structure the organization to support the strategy and identify key roles.
5. Performance Design Develop performance metrics and incentives that align with strategic goals.
6. Talent Development and Cultural Embedding Offer training and mentoring to support goal achievement and instill a performance-driven culture.
7. Tracking and Review Implement a review system to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments.

In conclusion, strategies often fail due to poor formulation. By following the three key points and seven steps outlined above, companies can ensure their strategies are successfully implemented and achieve the desired results！