BOOK REVIEWS

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book, The Balanced Scorecard, have observed that as high as 90 per cent of strategies are ... He labels this as the golden rule of strategy implementation. This chapter ... 'Implementation Compass' as a generic tool to facilitate implementation.
BOOK REVIEWS

Robin Speculand, Bricks to Bridges: How to Make Your Strategy Come Alive, Bridges Business Consultancy Int., Singapore, 2006, xxiv+ 290 pp., £ 14.95 Soft. In a contemporary business environment which is highly chaotic, initiating and managing change is a complex challenge. More organizations go into oblivion due to failure to properly implement strategy than due to lack of adopting appropriate strategy. They often build strategies which fail to take off; this is often so as their implementation mechanism is poor. Often, people dimension of strategy implementation is not attended properly. David Norton and Robert Kaplan in their famous book, The Balanced Scorecard, have observed that as high as 90 per cent of strategies are not implemented. This is largely attributable to the inability of business leaders to effectively manage change. Interestingly, a survey done by the author of the book under review, which was done over a period of five years across Southeast Asia, also confirms failure of 90 per cent strategies. Robin Speculand has written the book on the basis of his experience of guiding blue-chip companies including Microsoft and Citigroup. He has also conducted primary research whereby he interviewed some 150 executives at different levels in organizational hierarchies. The book is about some basics of effective implementation of strategy. It lays down an interesting roadmap to that effect. The book argues that business success lies in adopting a long-term approach, which entails the use of a generic tool for implementing strategies. It discusses eight traditional components of the generic tool, and adds six new fundamentals of strategy implementation. The book helps grasp the reasons for failure of strategy implementation. The author has focused himself on how to get the building blocks of success in place brick by brick. The contents of the book are divided into 14 chapters. In the first chapter, the author lists the challenges involved in the process of moving from strategy creation to strategy implementation. Chapter two details eight

traditional areas in this regard, which include: communicating the vision, identifying the obstacles, creating a sense of urgency, training, identifying change agents, altering rewards and recognition process, setting and celebrating milestones, and monitoring progress. These eight areas are the lessons learned from past implementations. In this chapter the author also talks of six new fundamentals of implementation, which are based on his five-year research. These include: finding out why change management fails; finding out how to galvanize the workforce into action beyond a coffee mug and tshirt; learning how to recognize and deal with the office groupies, mavericks, double agents and saboteurs; acquiring the discipline required to follow through on strategy; communicating your message clearly, simply and with passion; and lastly, constantly reviewing progress. He labels this as the golden rule of strategy implementation. This chapter also highlights the further steps that should be taken in strategy implementation. What needs to be done to make the organization’s strategy come alive has been discussed in chapter three. Ten chapters of the book (from 4 to 13) help the reader devise a framework that should be made as a reference point in implementing a strategy. The concluding chapter gives examples to facilitate taking a road to building one’s own strategy implementation. The central message of the book is that business strategies can only succeed if there are viable implementation plans in place to make them work. While delivering this message, the book reflects remarkable lucidity in clarifying general management and strategy concepts and their inter-relationships. Reading this book and learning the author’s formulations is indeed a good fun. It is full of ideas, besides being an engaging guide to strategy implementation. It can be read from cover to cover without any serious patches of distraction or disinterest. The cases and examples that illustrate the formulations of the author have been referred to appropriately. A number of hands-on tips enable managers sustain their interest in reading this guide as they are realistic. The book has succeeded well in delivering what it has promised. The author has done some plain speaking. He has advocated

84 Book Reviews ●

fundamental organizational change for effective implementation of strategy. He suggests discovering an ‘Implementation Compass’ as a generic tool to facilitate implementation. There are not many limitations of this useful strategy guide that is oriented to managers. But I wish, there was some discussion on, and illustrations of, rational and emergent strategies — a subject becoming so important in the era of chaotic business environment. For, the implementation issues will be different in different types of strategies. Also, since the book’s key focus is on strategy implementation, discussion on balanced score card was expected to be more detailed so as to be truly helpful stage by stage. That would have helped many new readers in accepting this implementation tool, especially those who resist implementing new ideas. Since this is basically a how-to book, no analytical rigour can be expected from such guides. That is quite understandable. However, part of the book’s attraction is taken away by spelling mistakes that are certainly not within acceptable limits. For example, on the front cover itself, Foreword has been spelt as Forword; on page vii, guarantee is written as guranty. All in all, the book is temping and engaging. It is bound to be read in full by most readers. It guides companies through the implementation phase, and enables them to assess strengths and weaknesses, to adopt best practices, and provides a clear roadmap for action. It has been written in quite a novel way. Especially, the practitioners are going to like it a good deal. The author has provided a wake-up call to the business world; and suggests that managers should avoid unnecessary failure by mastering the art of business strategy implementation. No doubt, the author’s efforts have resulted in a highly readable, comprehensive, and engaging book that provides some general practical formulations on strategy implementation. The book has dealt with several people issues. So it can as well be said to be an important reading for students of strategic human resource management (HRM) as well as human resource managers as it has shown great concern for change of attitudes and behaviours, which are the central concerns of any HRM strategy. It reflects a good implementation of Speculand’s strategy for writing an impacting book on strategy implementation. Debi S. Saini Professor—HRM Management Development Institute Gurgaon-122 001

Meenakshi Radhakrishnan Swami, Stratagem, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 2007, 354 pp., Rs. 325 Soft. Strategy is defined as a part of a broader holistic approach to the organisation-environment adaptation cycle. A typology of strategic types based for the most part on the organisation’s orientation towards product-market development can be: Defenders, Analysers, Prospectors and Reactors. There can be three modes of strategy-making: the Entrepreneurial, the Adaptive and the Planning that focuses mainly on the motives for decisions, who makes them, how alternatives are evaluated, the decisions’ horizons, linkages, organisational goals, flexibility of modes, age of organisation, and types of environments beneficial to each mode. Thus the emphasis should be on the process by which strategies emerge, rather than on their content. The concept of competitive strategy is described as taking offensive and defensive actions to create a defendable position in the industry. These actions enable the firm to successfully manage competitive forces and create a higher than average level of economic return. The Stratagem is yet another contribution in this direction. The author develops a larger understanding of today’s business environment and the responsibility of ensuring appropriateness and validation of business strategies by the managers and professionals. The Stratagem is a compilation of select business standards columns focusing on key issues and decisions faced by leaders and managers. The book provides an insight into the world of strategy, its implementation and management followed by various Indian and multinational companies. The purpose of this collection is to map and analyse the manner in which corporate in India choose to do business. The effort is also to identify the choices companies and industries make in order to maximize returns for their stake holders. Stratagem also highlights the vision, mission and the game plan to realise the ultimate aspiration of the companies. Along with the need to change or as the case may be. It provides a better understanding of strategic modus operandi of various companies by reporting the genuine and tangible events occurred in a simple, practical and informative manner. The book is divided into six sections or gems. The first being the Retail wherein the three stories collected communicates the fact that there is no specific ideal retail strategy for India. The companies are in dilemma whether the focus should be on passive sustenance or aggressive

VISION—The Journal of Business Perspective ● Vol. 11 ● No. 3 ● July–September 2007