In today’s fast-paced business environment, strategic planning is a powerful tool for driving growth and success. Unfortunately, despite its importance, many businesses fail to execute their strategies effectively, leading to 95% of strategic plans failing. This article will explore why this is the case, outlining the main obstacles that stand in the way of the successful execution of strategic plans and then provide a simple two-step growth plan to help business owners overcome these obstacles and achieve their desired outcomes.
So why do 95% of strategic plans fail?
The primary reason is that many businesses lack an effective system for monitoring and evaluating progress against goals, or they fail to effectively communicate their objectives across the organization. Additionally, businesses often fail to align resources with strategy in order to ensure proper execution. Without clear alignment between resource allocation and objectives, it can be difficult for teams to stay on track with their strategies, leading to failure in achieving desired results. Furthermore, many organizations struggle with setting realistic expectations when creating their strategies which leads to unrealistic goals that can’t be achieved within a given timeframe or budget. Finally, even if a business successfully designs a strong strategy but fails to motivate employees or provide incentives for success properly, chances are high that this strategy will not be implemented correctly or yield satisfactory results.
Given these challenges associated with implementing strategic plans successfully, what can business owners do? Fortunately, there is a straightforward, two-step process that can help overcome these obstacles and ensure greater success when executing strategic plans:
1) Align Resources With Goals:
Business owners need to ensure that resources are allocated appropriately based on objectives set forth in their strategy. By providing and allocating sufficient resources including people and money towards the most critical elements of the strategy business owners can ensure necessary progress is made on time towards achieving goals. Additionally, it is crucial for organizations to create effective communication systems both internally and externally so that everyone involved understands what needs to be accomplished by whom and by when.
2) Monitor Progress:
Regularly assessing and reporting on progress against goals helps keep teams motivated as well as helps identify any issues before they become too large of an obstacle. Reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) on a regular basis allows teams to make collaborative decisions quickly while also helping identify any areas needing further improvement or alignment with an overall strategy early on.
How a Mastermind Group Can Help
Business owners who want additional support in achieving their goals might consider joining a networking or mastermind group consisting of other entrepreneurs who understand their struggles and can offer advice based on their own experiences. A Mastermind group can aid in overcoming common challenges associated with setting up successful strategies as well as staying focused on executing them effectively over time – something that 95% of organizations typically struggle with at some point during their journey towards meeting both short-term goals as well as longer-term business visioning initiatives. Join the Ascend Mastermind HERE.
Overall having an effective strategy is only half the battle; taking the appropriate steps outlined above will help business owners maximize chances of success when executing these plans – something which statistics indicate few currently achieve! By following this two-step approach business owners have both concrete actions they can take as well as additional support from peers via networking groups which should lead to greater chances of realizing desired results from strategically driven initiatives over time.
If you need help to achieve your goals, schedule a free call with me HERE.