ASSIGNMENT- 2

Creative & strategic implementation

ACADEMIC SESSION: 2020-2023

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

UTKARSH ARYAN DR. PRADHYUMAN SINGH LAKHAWAT
ID: 20BBA005

SUBMITTED TO:
JOSEPH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES & COMMERCE

Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and

Sciences PRAYAGRAJ- 211007,(U.P.)
Strategy implementation
 Strategy implementation refers to putting the formulated strategies into action to

achieve the organizational objectives.

 Strategy implementation forms the most important part of strategic management

process because the entire success of the organization depends on the efficient

execution of formulated strategies.

 Strategy implementation involves actions and tasks that are needed to be performed

after the formulation of strategies.

 It is influenced by management’s perspective, as management sets the strategies that

are executed in the implementation stage. An effective implementation of strategy is

significant for an organization’s growth.

Strategy implementation should have the following features,

 Action Oriented:

Implies that a strategy should be actionable. A strategy is made actionable with the help

of different management processes, such as planning and organizing. The role of

management is not just restricted to formulating the plans, but also extends to

converting these plans into actions.

 Varied Skills:

Imply that strategy implementation involves wide-ranging skills. In an organization, vast

knowledge, attitude and abilities are required to implement a strategy. These skills help

in allocating resources, designing structures, and formulating policies.

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  Wide Involvement:

Means that strategy implementation requires the participation of the top, middle, and

lower level management. Top management must clearly communicate the strategy,

which needs to be implemented, to the middle management. You should note that the

middle management plays an active role in strategy implementation.

 Integrated Process:

Refers to covering a wide range of activities for strategy implementation. These

activities include allocating budgets, designing training programs, launching advertising

campaigns, and controlling costs.

Link between the formulation and implementation

Strategy implementation also affects strategy formulation because organizations try to

formulate the strategies that can be easily implemented.

Four possible combinations that serve as a link between the formulation and implementation of

a strategy are shown in Figure

Barriers to Strategy Implementation

The success of an organization mainly depends upon how different strategies are implemented.

Efficient strategy implementation requires rigorous and continuous efforts.

An organization may face the following barriers while implementing a strategy :

 Unclear communication in the organization

 Inadequate support from the top level management

 Discord among management teams about what to do and how to do

 Inflexibility, resulting in resistance to change

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  Incomplete information about the strategy

 Improper guidance about the process of implementation

 Insufficient time devoted in strategy formulation, which results in inefficient strategy

implementation

An organization can overcome preceding barriers with the help of the following measures:

 Approving the strategy implementation process by top management to facilitate clarity

 Managing the change in complex situations where change can be any modification in

human behavior, culture, and nature of the organization. The managers often fail to

adapt to the changes in an organization.

Process of Strategy Implementation

The implementation of strategies involves the application of strategies designed by the top

management of the organization.

According to Steiner; “the implementation process covers the entire managerial activities

including such matters as motivation, compensation, management appraisal, and control

processes.”

According to Higgins, “almost all management functions- planning, controlling, organizing,

motivating, leading, directing, integrating, communicating and innovation are in some degree

applied in the implementation process. ”

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Successful strategy implementation can be initiated by following a three-stage process. In the

three-stage process, every stage involves different tasks and activities. The process of strategy

implementation is shown in Figure

1. Activating Strategies

After formulating a strategy, it is activated by dividing the strategy into plans, programs,

projects, policies, procedures, and rules and regulations.

2. Managing change

Change management involves identifying a required change and preparing the organization to

manage that change. The organizations should see change as a positive process rather than a

negative thing because it results in experience and learning. The change also offers various

opportunities, such as deregulation of strict laws that hinder the organization’s work process.

3. Achieving Effectiveness

Achieving effectiveness refers to achieving the organizational effectiveness, which specifies the

degree to which an organization a able to fulfill its objectives.

For instance, an organization has planned to achieve a sales growth of 15% in a year, and as the

year passes by, the organization achieves 18% sales growth. In this case, it can be said that the

organization has achieved effectiveness. The organization would be called ineffective if its sales

growth is less than 15%.

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Different types of implementations
It is a broad concept that consists of different types of implementations such as project,

procedural, structural, behavior, and leadership implementation.

project implementation : Strategy implementation starts with project implementation, which

emphasizes on executing the predetermined plans and programs of the organization.

The project implementation is done through project management that is defined as the

functional discipline of management that involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling

activities.

PMI has defined the project management as “the discipline of planning, organizing, and

managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and

objectives.” The process of project management consists of the following phases.

Procedural implementation specifies a set of guidelines that helps in the efficient

implementation of projects. Procedural implementation cannot be completed smoothly

without the efficient allocation of resources.

Structural implementation involves formulating the structure of an organization that supports

strategy implementation. Some of the organizational structures are entrepreneurial structure

functional structure, and divisional structure.

Behavioral implementation involves the behavior of employees that is influenced by the type

of culture, politics, and values and ethics of an organization.

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Leadership implementation helps in implementing the strategies by performing important

functions, such as planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling.

Creative strategy
A creative strategy is made up of 2 essential parts.

First, the creative aspect. What typically comes to mind are design teams, writers,

photographers, product designers, and digital media managers when we talk about creatives in

the workplace. Creative are the people who form the basis of new products and strategies, with

an important set of elements in mind .

Second is the actual strategic planning that is done to help a new marketing project find high

rates of success.

Essentially, creative strategy development is the process of identifying your marketing goals

and designing a strategic plan to achieve them. It’s how you will lead your team in the right

direction. These strategies allow you to create content that reflects the company’s values,

engages customers, and solves a problem. A creative strategy will guide your business from its

current state to meeting (and surpassing) your long-term vision.

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5 Essential Elements Of A Successful Creative Strategy
While creative strategies can vary in their action plans and goals, there are 5 main elements of a

creative strategy that play a vital role in its creation. These include:

1. Brand Awareness

This is the knowledge you have of what helps people identify your company, product, or

personal brand. What are the long-term goals of your brand? What is the brand’s history? What

has the growth of your brand looked like? What is your mission statement? What are the main

values? All of these concepts play a vital role in the development of your creative strategy and

must be well known to your marketing team.

2. Main Objective

The goal of the marketing strategy.

3. Target Audience

Who are you directing your marketing efforts towards? Knowing who you are talking to in your

marketing will determine what strategies would best resonate with your ideal customer. Think

of things like gender, age, demographic, financial status, likes and dislikes, etc. Many companies

will even create a client avatar reflecting the ideal customer who the marketing campaign

would be directed to.

4. Primary USP

The Unique Selling Proposition is why you’re the best person to be providing your

service/product. The USP makes you stand out from your competitors by differentiating your

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offer.

5. Tone

Many companies have created a tone guide for their marketing department to follow when

creating any material for the company. This ensures that the voice of the company sounds the

same across all platforms and is easily identified by their consumer base. A coherent tone

across all of your marketing is essential in continuing to grow your brand and attract your target

audience.

Process For Developing And Executing Creative Strategy

The process of developing and implementing a creative strategy is made up of 4 main parts:

planning, developing, implementing, and measuring. Let’s take a deeper look at each one.

Planning and Development:

 Identify And Set Realistic Goals

Setting goals that reflect your company’s values and are in line with its long-term goals

is the first step in planning your creative strategy. Goals can include things like boosting

engagement on social channels, creating hotter leads in your funnels, increasing sales,

etc. These goals, however, must be outlined appropriately to be successful. This is

where methods like SMART Goals can be highly beneficial, ensuring they are specific,

measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

 Identify Your Audience’s Problems

What problem are you solving for your target audience? What are their pain points?

When you consider these questions, it is important to go deeper than surface level.

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 When you think about the benefits you’re offering them, think about how they solve the

bigger issues in their lives. For example, if you’re marketing a system to enhance team

management, you’re making it easier for managers to interact with their team. You’re

also helping them maintain their projects through one system. When you consider the

deeper pain points, you’re creating a product that serves your customers’ bigger

struggles. These include providing those managers with regaining their time, tracking

progress with ease, and making deadlines nearly impossible to miss, all from one

singular tool. Identify your audience’s pain points, and create a strategy to highlight

your ability to fix them.

 Brainstorm And Choose Your Creative Strategy

When you’re developing a new creative strategy, a diverse team is beneficial. Diversity

allows for a higher variety of perspectives, providing a better selection of ideas. Varying

perspectives leads to higher rates of collaboration, producing more refined solutions

and a strategy that will connect on a more personal level with your audience.A great

way to begin planning your creative strategy is to work backward from the goals you’ve

chosen. This will help you create a well-structured plan that keeps the timeframe of the

project in mind.

 Create Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Specifically, your USP is where you’ll define why you’re the best option. This will position

you as the authority in your industry and is the first step in building trust with your

customers. However, before you can position yourself as the best option in the industry,

you must first know exactly who your ideal customer will be. You can achieve this by

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 researching your target audience at length. Being knowledgeable about who you’re

targeting will help you develop a more directed, personable strategy. This will allow you

to connect with your audience on a deeper level than your competition.

Determine How You’ll Measure Success

The easiest way to do this is to set milestones to gauge progress throughout the project’s

lifetime. This will provide you with a way to adjust your strategy if you find it’s not aligning with

your expected timeline.

Depending on your project, your key performance indicators (KPI) will fluctuate to fit the

strategy, however, they may include:

 Click-through rates

 Number of new email subscribers

 Engagement on social platforms

 Number of sales

 Profits made over a specific amount of time

Implementing And Measuring

 Pre-Test

When beginning any new marketing campaign, it is essential to pre-test your strategies

in smaller pools. This will help you gain a better understanding of the potential success

of your creative strategy. This will also provide you with the opportunity to identify any

issues or shortcomings in your strategy and adjust them to be more successful.While in

the pre-test stage, using an A/B test strategy is a great way to compare campaigns that

have slight differences in them. This will provide you with the opportunity to see how

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 each one performs and create your final campaign using the data collected from each.

Once you’re satisfied with your pre-test results, it’s time to execute your final project

and release it to your full audience.

 Evaluate Your Campaigns

Once you’ve executed your final product, ensure you check in on its success at various

stages. This will let you monitor its progress and pivot if needed. The best way to do this

is to use your previously determined milestones to measure the likelihood of meeting

your goals in their expected timelines.Another way to evaluate your campaign is to

compare data from past creative strategies to the data being received from your current

strategy. This will give you a strong indication of growth over longer periods of time and

allow you to measure success on a larger scale. This also provides you with a unique

opportunity to “bring back” previous aspects of a creative strategy that performed well

in the past.

 Optimize

If you don’t meet your goals right away, consider completing some additional testing of

various marketing techniques (if time allows), while still maintaining the essential

aspects of the project. If you do find your creative strategy failing, use it as a learning

opportunity. Evaluate why your creative strategy may not have performed the way you

had hoped. Take a deeper look into your USP, tone guide, and target audience research

to determine if there are any aspects that may have been missed or need to be

tweaked. Use all the data you have to make a more informed strategy for your next

project.

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A creative strategy is an intentional and strategic approach a company takes in developing

and implementing steps that will ensure and support your long-term business growth.

Your creative strategy serves as a call to action for teams and provides the guiding principles

for developing the content.

In it, you will outline each aspect of what you’ll need to do, from the messaging and creative

assets to relevant channels and estimated budget. It also defines your target audience and

how and when to reach them.

Developing a successful creative marketing strategy:-

Marketing teams don’t have time or budget to waste. To achieve success, considerable

thought must be put into what and how you do it. We suggest you heed this advice:

 Make it goal-oriented and focused. Your creative strategy should answer the why,

what, and how you will achieve a defined goal.

 Be mindful of time. Include a timeline in your strategy so each team member stays on

track and avoids any last-minute problems.

 Share it with relevant stakeholders. Achieving your marketing goal requires a high level

of collaboration, which means each stakeholder must see and understand how it aligns

with their work, such as brand strategy.

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6 must-haves for creative strategy
Now that you have a solid idea of what your creative strategy will help you achieve, let’s dive

into what it should include, and how to execute it.

1. Clearly define your goals

Understanding what you are trying to achieve is fundamental to writing an effective strategy.

Before diving into action, take some time to write down what your main goals are. This will

inform all of the subsequent steps you’ll take, including budget and resource allocation, and

messaging.

For example, if your goal is to increase online engagement with customers, your strategy will

look very different than if your goal is to boost lead generation by 20%.

Share these goals with everyone who will be involved in bringing them to life. Complete team

comprehension and alignment are crucial here.

2. Write a creative strategy statement

A creative strategy statement is one or two statements that describe the purpose of your

initiative or campaign, the value proposition, and the target audience.

The statement should answer the question, “How can we get customers to buy our products or

services over those of a competitor?”

3. Choose your KPIs

Choosing the right key performance indicators an important step in developing your creative

strategy, as they will indicate success or failure.

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Again, your KPIs will depend on what your goals are. For example, if your goal is to increase

online engagement with your customers, some of your KPIs might be the number of

impressions for social media posts, the number of likes/comments, and how many mentions

you receive in customers’ posts.

You will also need to determine how to measure each of these. Do you want to reach a certain

number of impressions by the time the quarter ends, or do you want to increase the number of

impressions each week by a certain percentage?

4. Determine on your messaging and marketing channels

In this step, you need to decide what you are going to say, how you want to say it, how you will

position it within the greater context of your brand.

Other considerations include what the content will look like, and where it will appear (i.e. what

channels you will use). The length, tone, and style of your messaging should be consistent with

your overall goal, and make sense for the target audience. Promoting a recognizable and solid

brand is always part of a successful creative strategy.

5. Set a budget

Creating an accurate budget is an integral part of your creative strategy.

To do this, you must first understand the scope of your initiative, including:

 What kinds of deliverables you will produce

 How much you will rely on paid marketing vs. organic marketing

 The cost of paid services (including running online ads, paying vendors, and possibly

buying new software)

 The length of time you will need such services

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6. Create a timeline

A timeline helps you build a realistic budget, as well as enabling stakeholder alignment.

When each contributing team member understands key deadlines and milestones, you can

make sure the project moves forward smoothly.

Strategy Implementation and Realisation

Despite the experience of many organisations, it is possible to turn strategies and plans into

individual actions, necessary to produce a great business performance.

But it's not easy. Many companies repeatedly fail to truly motivate their people to work with

enthusiasm, all together, towards the corporate aims.

Most companies and organisations know their businesses, and the strategies required for

success. However, many corporations - especially large ones - struggle to translate the theory

into action plans that will enable the strategy to be successfully implemented and sustained.

Here are some leading edge methods for effective strategic corporate implementation.

These advanced principles of strategy realisation are provided by the Farsight Leadership

organisation, and this contribution is gratefully acknowledged.

Most companies have strategies, but far fewer achieve them. Various studies support this view,

for example:

A Fortune Magazine study suggested that 70% of 10 CEOs who fail do so not because of bad

strategy, but because of bad execution. (Source: Why CEOs Fail - R Charan & G Colvin, Fortune

Magazine, 21 Jun 1999.)

In another study of 200 companies in the Times 1000, 80% of directors said they had the right

strategies but only 14% thought they were implementing them well, no doubt linked to the

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finding that despite 97% of directors having a 'strategic vision', only 33% reported achieving

'significant strategic success'. (Source: Why do only one third of UK companies achieve strategic

success? - I Cobbold & G Lawrie, 2GC Ltd., May 2001.)

The message clear - effective strategy realisation is key for achieving strategic success.

Essential Elements

 motivational leadership - concentrates on achieving sustained performance through

personal growth, values-based leadership and planning that recognises human dynamics

 turning strategy into action - entails a phased approach, linking identified performance

factors with strategic initiatives and projects designed to develop and optimise

departmental and individual activities

 performance management - involving the construction of organisational processes and

capabilities necessary to achieve performance through people delivering results.

1) Motivational Leadership

Real leadership is required to compete effectively and deliver growth.

People look to leaders to bring meaning, to make sense of the seemingly unquenchable

demand for results and the need for individuals to find purpose and value.

Leadership is the common thread which runs through the entire process of translating strategy

into results and is the key to engaging the hearts and minds of your people.

Whether you are distilling strategy to achieve clarity of intent, engaging your people to drive

the strategy into action process or performance managing the resulting actions, effective

leadership will make the difference.

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2) Strategy into Action

'Strategy into Action' planning is a phased approach charting a course through performance

factors, linking strategic thrusts to project, departmental and individual activity. The ultimate

goal is to enable organisations to effectively translate strategic intent all the way through to

results in a clear and powerful process.

The real need is to creatively and systematically unfold the strategy, bring it to life by creating

integrated action plans across an organisation that ensure all functions and divisions are aligned

behind it.

There are three distinct phases, identified and demonstrated by the questions listed:

Distil business strategy to achieve clarity of intent

 What is the intent behind the strategy?

 What does it mean for each operational unit within the organisation?

Developing the strategic thrusts and broad based action plans

 What are the few important themes that need to be worked on to deliver the intent?

 What are the sub-themes and projects?

 What will success look like and how will it be measured?

Cascading out detailed work plans

 How will the projects be led and resourced?

 Who will be responsible for each task?

 Are individual work plans aligned?

 What is the review process?

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By following this process you and your team - directors, managers, and team members - can

map how to deliver your vision; your strategic plan.

Involving the right people is is essential to making the right decisions on priorities, and to

creating action plans that are clear and aligned.

The objective is for everyone in the organisation to understand the strategy and specifically

how what they are doing will contribute to overall delivery.

3) Performance Management

Too often great plans stay as 'plans'. Typically, the energy and enthusiasm generated during the

planning process quickly ebbs away, swamped by the weight of day to day operational issues.

The organisation and its people gravitate to fire-fighting and reactive task scheduling, instead of

planning proactively to deliver the new strategic plan.

To make the strategy 'live' everyone in the organisation needs to be engaged to take action,

which means:

 Communicating the strategic intent, thrusts and action plans

 Using rigorous project management principles to deliver the change agenda

 Setting individual targets and work plans aligned to the strategic priorities

 Consistently measuring progress, assessing and giving feedback about performance

Performance management is a key factor in getting the whole organisation aligned and

mobilised to reach higher and work collaboratively together to deliver results.

Increasingly, performance management is enabled using IT systems. FarsightPlus® is and

example of an excellent new performance management IT system, which has a pivotal

influence on the success of strategy realisation.

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The characteristics of an effective performance management system, such as FarsightPlus® are:

 it must communicate strategy

 it must measure performance in real time, and

 it must offer an integrated project management capability, and

 it must acknowledge and enable emotional contracting with all staff, which is so vital for

linking individual commitment and activity to the attainment of organisational plans

This emotional contracting element is commonly overlooked by organisations, and then they

wonder why the people have 'failed' to do what the organisation expected and asked them to

do.

Emotional contracting (also referred to as 'the psychological contract') is the crucial and

powerful link between the organisational intent, and the motivations, values and aspirations of

the people.

A good IT-based performance management system must enable effective processes and

organisational capabilities to be put in place to create the transparency and accountability

needed to drive performance on a sustained basis.

How Effective Is Your Strategy Realisation?

There are simple ways to judge whether your strategy realisation process is working:

Obviously look for business results and progress on the delivery of targets and KPI's (Key

Performance Indicators).

You need also to look for signs that your people have really got the corporate message and

have taken it to heart.

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A well known story illustrates the point:

A group of US Senators were visiting NASA at the time when funding was under threat. One

Senator asked a man cleaning the floor "So what are you doing here?" The man answered, "I'm

here putting a man on the Moon!"

How closely do your people identify and associate their own roles with your organizational

purpose?

Do your people really know what your corporate aims are, and if so do they see and agree with

how they fit into the scheme?

Sadly in many organisations the vast majority of staff do not understand the corporate aims, let

alone see themselves as an integral part of the effort.

Strategy realisation will not happen without the people being an enthusiastic part of the effort.

All to easy to say; another thing entirely to make happen.

The 'Man on the Moon' statement is a real benchmark of the process quality for turning any

strategy into action - whether for a team, a department or a corporation.

Every single person must know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and above all, must

be fully committed to doing what they are doing.

If your methods enable every single person to know what they are doing, and why, and to be

emotionally committed to it, then the process of turning strategy into action is probably

working.

Ask yourself some of these questions and you will begin to see how to make your own

strategies happen.

These strategic realisation principles are contributed by Farsight Leadership, which is gratefully

acknowledged.

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Strategic Implementation
Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to

accomplish strategic objectives and goals. Implementing your strategic plan is as important, or

even more important, than your strategy. The video How to Build a Strategic Plan You Can

Actually Implement is a great way to learn how to take your implementation to the next level.

ritical actions move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions that drive

business growth. Sadly, the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to implement

them. According to Fortune Magazine, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their

strategic plan for many reasons:

 60% of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting

 75% of organizations don’t link employee incentives to strategy

 86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing

strategy

 95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand their organization’s strategy.

A strategic plan provides a business with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific strategic

direction and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and be successful. However,

this is just a plan; it doesn’t guarantee that the desired performance is reached any more

than having a roadmap guarantees the traveler arrives at the desired destination.

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Getting Your Strategy Ready for Implementation

For those businesses that have a plan in place, wasting time and energy on the planning process

and then not implementing the plan is very discouraging. Although the topic of implementation

may not be the most exciting thing to talk about, it’s a fundamental business practice that’s

critical for any strategy to take hold.

The strategic plan addresses the what and why of activities, but implementation addresses the

who, where, when, and how. The fact is that both pieces are critical to success. In fact,

companies can gain competitive advantage through implementation if done effectively. In the

following sections, you’ll discover how to get support for your complete implementation plan

and how to avoid some common mistakes.

Avoiding the Implementation Pitfalls

Because you want your plan to succeed, heed the advice here and stay away from the pitfalls of

implementing your strategic plan.

Here are the most common reasons strategic plans fail:

 Lack of ownership: The most common reason a plan fails is lack of ownership. If people

don’t have a stake and responsibility in the plan, it’ll be business as usual for all but a

frustrated few.

 Lack of communication: The plan doesn’t get communicated to employees, and they

don’t understand how they contribute.

 Getting mired in the day-to-day: Owners and managers, consumed by daily operating

problems, lose sight of long-term goals.

 Out of the ordinary: The plan is treated as something separate and removed from the

management process.

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 An overwhelming plan: The goals and actions generated in the strategic planning

session are too numerous because the team failed to make tough choices to eliminate

non-critical actions. Employees don’t know where to begin.

 A meaningless plan: The vision, mission, and value statements are viewed as fluff and

not supported by actions or don’t have employee buy-in.

 Annual strategy: Strategy is only discussed at yearly weekend retreats.

 Not considering implementation: Implementation isn’t discussed in the strategic

planning process. The planning document is seen as an end in itself.

 No progress report: There’s no method to track progress, and the plan only measures

what’s easy, not what’s important. No one feels any forward momentum.

 No accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that

each measure, objective, data source, and initiative must have an owner.

 Lack of empowerment: Although accountability may provide strong motivation for

improving performance, employees must also have the authority, responsibility, and

tools necessary to impact relevant measures. Otherwise, they may resist involvement

and ownership.

It’s easier to avoid pitfalls when they’re clearly identified. Now that you know what they

are, you’re more likely to jump right over them!

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