One of the most important jobs of the CEO is to make sure the company has a solid strategy. While most CEOs really DO have one, the unfortunate irony is that in most organizations, the strategy is not actually understood and interpreted by even the first level of leadership.

In a recent study by Sloan Management, a group of top leaders were asked if they “know the strategy” of their company. 97% of them indicated that they thought they knew it. Then, when asked to identify the actual strategies, only 28% of managers could list at least 3.

The CEO found himself shocked at the results. Only one-quarter of the managers surveyed could list three of the company’s five strategic priorities

Strategy Research Report Screenshot

“Our analysis of 124 organizations revealed that only 28% of executives and middle managers responsible for executing strategy could list three of their company’s strategic priorities.”

See the article here.

How can KPI Fire help?

Our Mission at KPI Fire is to help organizations execute on their Strategic Priorities on a path of continuous improvement:

How is this done:

  1. Share your strategy. Not just once, but continuously. Simply sending out an email once a year can be quickly forgotten. Instead, you can put your strategic plan in a web based location. This is easily accessible by key employees, all of the time.
  2. Measure your strategy with Key Performance Metrics. If you have a strategy without measurable outcomes, you are missing out on a valuable piece of the execution. For each strategic priority, have at least 1 Key Performance Metric that you will measure at least monthly.
  3. Align key projects with strategic initiatives. In your organization, most of the actual strategy “work” will likely be project based work.  By putting some rigor around your organizations Project Management practices, you can ensure that your strategic projects will stay on track.

KPI Fire is Strategy Execution Software.  Your organization’s most important goals and strategies can be input, so that key employees have ready access to the actual strategies, their definitions, and the metrics that measure their success.  KPI Fire also has robust project management for ensuring that your strategic projects stay on track.