At August 26th Robin Speculand paid NUS a visit to talk about the role of leadership in strategy implementation. Not only was I curious about the event because it was (co)organized by the Marketing Club, but due to my own experience in undergoing some project implementations in my previous job, I wanted to know what an expert would say regarding this subject.
Robin Speculand turned out to be a very enthusiastic speaker, which was very welcome after a long day of classes! His presentation was highly interactive, and full of practical examples and tips.
He spoke about the successes and failures of campaigns previously run and how they could have been improved or prevented (e.g., the introduction of the new terminal at London Heathrow, which was unfortunately remembered for being a big fiasco!).
He explained his principles by using a compass to guide a company through the process of implementation by using the elements of: People, Biz Case, Communicate, Measure, Culture, Process, Reinforce and Review. He emphasized the importance of detail at the review part, since it is usually ‘squeezed’ in at the end of the process, or even left out completely.
When leadership kicks in, Speculand mentions the following as key take-aways:
- It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense, but just because it’s common sense doesn’t mean it’s common practice.
- Leaders have been living the strategy; staff members are hearing it for the first time.
- Leaders are responsible for translating the strategy into specific actions.
So, make sure the leaders in the organization translate the new process down to their managers and they translate it down to their people. The most important part is that the entire company is “breathing” the new strategy.
He elaborated on how NOT to implement and gave tips on how to try to make strategy implementation work. All in all it was one big déjà vu. I will be sure to drop my previous manager an e-mail with a copy of Robin’s slides…
