Without effective execution, no business strategy can succeed. This second edition delivers a powerful framework every leader can use to overcome the obstacles to successfully deploying business strategy. In this book, leading consultant and Wharton professor Lawrence Hrebiniak offers a comprehensive, disciplined process model for making strategy work in the real world. Drawing on his unsurpassed experience, Hrebiniak shows why execution is even more important than many senior executives realize, and sheds powerful new light on why businesses fail to deliver on even their most promising strategies. He offers a systematic roadmap for execution that encompasses every key success factor: organizational structure, coordination, information sharing, incentives, controls, change management, culture, and the role of power and influence in your business. With three new chapters, expanded coverage, and new examples, the Second Edition of this highly successful book is the definitive guide for turning strategy into action.

Lawrence G. Hrebiniak, Ph.D., has emeritus status at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Hrebiniak was a member of the faculty of the Department of Management of The Wharton School for 36 years, where he taught courses in strategic management in the Wharton M.B.A. and Executive Education Programs. He still is very active in the Wharton Executive Education arena, teaching and working with managers in the area of strategy implementation or execution.

Dr. Hrebiniak held managerial positions in the automobile industry prior to entering academia, which provided him with valuable real-world experience. He is a past President of the Organization Theory Division of the Academy of Management. For more than two years he was one of a handful of Wharton faculty members providing commentaries on the Wharton Management Report, a TV program on the Financial News Network.

Professor Hrebiniak's most notable research of late has been in the area of strategy execution. He has consulted with or participated in executive development work with scores of companies, profit and not-for-profit alike, both inside and outside the U.S. He facilitated many of Jack Welch's legendary "Work-Outs." Based on his research and experience with strategy implementation, he developed integrated processes that help make strategy work in different organizations, across different industry settings. He is still active as a researcher and consultant.

Dr. Hrebiniak has authored seven books and numerous professional articles. This book, the second edition of the bestselling Making Strategy Work, reflects his experience as a manager, consultant, and educator in creating a culture of execution and facilitator of the execution process in complex organizations.

Introduction to the Second Edition xxiii Acknowledgments xxv Introduction to the First Edition xxvii Learning from Experience xxviii What You Need to Lead xxviii The Big Picture xxviii Effective Change Management xxix Applying What You Learn xxix The Bottom Line xxx On a Final Note xxx A Few Thanks xxx PART I: KEY FACTORS IN STRATEGY EXECUTION 1 Chapter 1 Strategy Execution Is the Key 3 Execution Is a Key to Success 5 Making Strategy Work Is More Difficult Than the Task of Strategy Making 6 A Focus on Making Strategy Work Pays Major Dividends 8 Managers Are Trained to Plan, Not Execute 9 Let the "Grunts" Handle Execution 10 Planning and Execution Are Interdependent 11 Execution Takes Longer Than Formulation 14 Execution Is a Process, Not an Action or Step 17 Execution Involves More People Than Strategy Formulation 18 Additional Challenges and Obstacles to Successful Execution 19 Wharton-Gartner Survey and Executive Education Data Collection . . . .20 The Results: Obstacles to Successful Strategy Execution 22 Execution Outcomes 26 The Execution Challenge 28 Having a Model or Guidelines for Execution 29 Strategy Is the Primary Driver 29 Choosing an Organizational Structure 29 Coordination and Information Sharing 30 Clear Responsibility and Accountability 30 The Power Structure 30 Incentives, Controls, Feedback, and Adaptation 31 The Right Culture 31 Leadership 31 Managing Change 32 Applications and Special Topics 33 The Next Step: Developing a Logical Approach to Execution Decisions and Actions 33 Summary 35 Endnotes 36 Chapter 2 Overview and Model: Making Strategy Work 37 Common Versus Unique Execution Solutions 38 A Need for Action 40 A Model of Strategy Execution 41 Corporate Strategy 43 Corporate Strategy and Structure 45 Need for Integration 50 Executing Business Strategy 53 "Demands" of Business Strategy 55 Integrating Strategy and Short-Term Operating Objectives 56 Incentives and Controls 61 Incentives 63 Controls 64 Another View of the Model of Strategy Execution 65 Context of Execution Decisions 67 The Execution Context 68 Managing Change 69 Culture 69 The Organizational Power Structure 70 The Leadership Climate 71 Need for a Disciplined Approach 72 Summary 73 Endnotes 74 Chapter 3 The Path to Successful Execution: Good Strategy Comes First 77 Is the Impact of Strategy Overrated? 78 Issue #1: The Need for Sound Planning and a Clear, Focused Strategy 80 Corporate-Level Planning 81 Corporate Strategy: Some Corporate Examples, Good and Bad 82 Business Strategy 86 The Service Business 93 Issue #2: The Importance of Integrating Corporate and Business Strategies 95 The Role of the Business Is Unclear 97 Inappropriate Performance Metrics 98 Battles Over Resource Allocations 99 Assessments of Business Performance Create Additional Problems 99 The Strategy Review 100 Issue #3: Thinking Short Term-The Need to Define and Communicate the Operational Components of Strategy 103 Integrating Strategic and Short-Term Objectives 105 Need for Measurable Objectives 106 Issue #4: Understanding the "Demands" of Strategy and Successful Execution 108 Low-Cost Producer 109 Differentiation Strategies 111 Developing the Right Capabilities 112 The Demands of Global Strategy 115 A Final Point 116 Summary 117 Endnotes 118 Chapter 4 Organizational Structure and Execution 119 The Challenge of Structural Choice 120 Johnson & Johnson 120 Citibank, ABB, and Other Large Global Players 122 Service Organizations and Nonprofits 123 The Critical Structural Issues 124 Structural Issue #1: Measuring Costs and Benefits of Structure 126 Structural Issue #2: Centralization Versus Decentralization 131 Structural Issue #3: The Strategy-Structure Relationship and Effective Execution 144 Summary 157 Endnotes 160 Chapter 5 Managing Integration: Effective Coordination and Information Sharing 163 The Importance of Integration 165 Boeing 165 Hewlett-Packard 165 General Motors 166 Royal Dutch/Shell Group 167 Law Firms and Integration 168 Interdependence and Coordination Methods 169 Types of Interdependence 169 Coordination Processes and Methods 174 The GE "Work Out" 178 Facilitating Information Sharing, Knowledge Transfer, and Communication 181 Creating, Using, and Sharing Knowledge 181 Methods, Tools, or Processes for Information Sharing 184 Informal Forces and Information Sharing 187 Additional Informal Factors Affecting Information Flow and Knowledge Transfer 190 Clarifying Responsibility and Accountability 197 Responsibility Plotting and Role Negotiation 198 Summary 202 Endnotes 204 Chapter 6 Incentives and Controls: Supporting and Reinforcing Execution 207 Role of Incentives and Controls 208 Incentives and Execution 209 A Basic Rule: Don't Demotivate People 209 Good Incentives 210 Reward the Right Things 214 Controls: Feedback, Learning, and Adaptation 216 The Control Process 216 Develop and Use Good Objectives 221 Controls Require Timely and Valid Information 222 Use and Act on the Information 223 Face the Brutal Facts Honestly 225 Reward the Doers, the Performers 226 Reward Cooperation 227 Clarify Responsibility and Accountability 228 Leadership,…