Execution has for too long been the step child of the business world. But the research is in. As Return on Execution uncovered, “Although the egos in the executive suite may not like the fact that bottom line results are far more dependent on execution (85% vs. 15%) than on strategic plans, it is reality. “
SuccessFactors, consistent with their evidence driven approach, has done the research and clearly has plans to change this, and in no small measure. They are defining a new software category and a new measure of business success, Return on Execution, or RoX. – Brilliant!
The Return on Execution manifesto outlines two levers of RoX: business alignment and people performance. I’ve written a number of posts about the imperative of alignment like I’d Fly Costo. Here, Lars and Erik sum it up very well: “Alignment around strategy should replace the traditional alignment around hierarchy. A truly aligned organization is set up to execute. They know where they are running and why”. In my next post I’ll review the second lever of SuccessFactors’ RoX, people performance.
I also look forward to hearing Erik speak at next week’s ASP meeting in Menlo Park.
Congratulations and hats off to SuccessFactors for taking the lead on Business Execution.
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Meri,
Great post and summary points. I couldn’t agree more that it’s all about execution and I would take it even one step further, that it’s all about actions. In our business we created our own Manifesto http://www.rapidinfluence.com/our-manifesto/ now it happens that our business is about providing online solutions for strategic plan implementation so this manifesto is about how we view the world.
The thing about execution is that it has to be done by people and it takes all types of people and people sometimes don’t know where to start so by talking about execution in smaller chunks (actions) it makes it easier to get started and more likely that the plan will be successful.
Thanks
Ed Loessi
http://www.rapidinfluence.com
http://twitter.com/rapidinfluence
Hi Meri,
Glad to see you’re excited about Execution being as important as it is. However, SuccessFactors is not the first – and certainly not the only – organization to dedicate itself to the importance of strategy execution.
Check out my Be Excellent blog ( http://sixdisciplines.blogspot.com/) – and our company Six Disciplines (http://www.SixDisciplines.com)
I think you’ll find that SuccessFactors comes to this party from an HR perspective, whereas SixDisciplines comes to it from a holistic framework.
All the best!
Skip
http://www.twitter.com/sreardon
http://www.SixDisciplines.blogspot.com
http://www.SixDisciplines.com