a bottleneck or a champion ? ceos role in strategy implementation

" Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry dogma? At the top! .Gary Hamel

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Bottleneck at the top of the bottle

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Thomas Watson proclaimed in 1943 that there is a world market for 5 computers

Bill Gates commented that 640 Kbyte should be enough memory for everyonehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/43225918@N00/2244447400/

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fiercest stumbling blocks to effective transformation are at the top.

Strategy has very little chance to get executed, if the top management refuses to champion or sponsor the cause

An Energy Major into Real EstateConsider a case of a large scale real estate development for an Indian energy major, where the top boss commented that the architectural design is bold & perhaps will not be easily acceptable to Indian consumers.http://www.flickr.com/photos/wang_qian_021386/2603959895/

Subsequent focus groups revealed that the consumers loved the design & craved for a world class luxury development in their backyards.http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmecelab/2323995433/

Senior managers (executing the project), kept emphasizing that the development plan needs to be altered without giving any logical reasons , just so that they remain on the right side of the top boss. They refuted all consumer data & research and relied only on the focus group of one- the top boss. As for the development expertise of the top boss, well he may have built a bungalow or two for himself.

The critical first step in transformation is to generate buy-in from the top boss & his senior managers spend considerable time to seek inputs & encourage involvement from the top management top management needs to be given specific roles to steer the programme to its logical conclusion enlisting them as champions

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Change is an imperative, not a 'good to have'. The top guy has to recognize that.http://www.flickr.com/photos/28664154@N07/2676753910/

Top managers need to own the change, the need to run to stay at the same placehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/14130889/

As Anita Roddick of the highly innovative Body Shop, said, "I watch where the cosmetics industry is going and then walk in the opposite direction."http://www.flickr.com/photos/21845095@N06/2828572501/

For more on strategy execution by Sarvajeet Chandra http://strategy-execution.blogspot.com http://www.mastersungroup.com