The Implementation Challenge

The implementation of appropriate strategies remains one of the most difficult areas of management. Considerable thought, energy and resources is given over to devising a strategic plan; and it is to the fine detail of the plan that attention turns when things go wrong. The plan, rather than the implementation comes in for scrutiny, because it is less problematic to analyse. Perhaps this is because, whereas the plan can be devised under pollution-free, almost laboratory conditions, the working out of the plan takes place in the real world infected with real world variables. But the whole point of a strategy is that it will be implemented and implemented successfully. Much has been written on change management and transformational leadership all very relevant to strategy implementation but there are comparatively few books which look at the implementation process as a whole. The Implementation Challenge aims to link the numerous concepts and approaches to the subject but recognizes the impact on implementation of the organization as it lives and breathes. From the work of leading thinkers in the field of strategic management, David Hussey has selected contributions specifically focusing on the theme of implementation. Some of the work is to be found in Strategic Change; this, together with new material and four major case studies, makes The Implementation Challenge thoroughly up to date and coherent. It is intended to be thought provoking, and to give practical aid to those involved with achieving successful implementation of their organization s strategic plans and thinking.

About the author David Hussey is visiting professor of strategic management at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, and an author and consultant linked to the global CIMID SA organisation. He was with the Harbridge House Inc organisation for nearly 20 years, and for most of them was managing director of the European consulting and management development activities. His consulting skills in strategic management and HR drew upon his experience in industry in marketing research, strategic planning, and HRM. He was one of the founders of the Society of Strategic Planning, and is a director of the Japan Strategic Management Society, where he is one of a small number of foreign authorities invited to serve in this position. This is his 11th book as author or co-author, and he has edited 11 more, including Rethinking Strategic Management, Wiley, 1995, and The Implementation Challenge, Wiley 1996. He is editor of the journal Strategic Change and of Croner’s Journal of Professional HRM. His consulting and educational work has taken him to many parts of Europe, North America, Africa and South East Asia.