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Unlike traditional planning, strategy deployment is not an annual exercise but an iterative approach to transformation. Geoff Schreiner shares his wisdom on getting to grips with strategy deployment.

Executive Summary
With so many schools of thought when it comes to strategy, a fair conclusion is that the term ‘Strategy’
has different meanings to different organisations. It’s therefore necessary for organisations to provide
their own definitions and parameters. Our recommended approach to improvement strategy deployment
is to use PDCA as the basis of the methodology supported by a combination of Lean and Hoshin tools,
namely A3s, Catchball, and Visual Management.

trategy deployment has proved a major challenge for most global organisations ever since its first emergence in Japan in the late 1950s through Professor Ishikawa, who boldly declared that ‘each person is an expert in their own job.’ Strategy deployment is elusive because it is both so simple and at the same time so very complex. The challenge therefore is — without being simplistic — to make strategy deployment practical and impactful.

Let’s start with the question ‘what is strategy?’
There are many major schools of thought on the topic including the Positioning School (Michael Porter), the Learning School (Prahalad and Hamel) and the contingency theorists of the Environmental School. All have very different perspectives on what strategy is and what its role should be. A fair conclusion is that strategy has different meanings across different organisations and consequently when discussing the concept it is imperative that one provides one’s own definition.

We have found it very useful to distinguish between a corporate strategy, a business (or competitive) strategy and an improvement strategy in the following ways:
Corporate strategy supports the organisation's vision, defines the playing fields (markets) and sets the overall direction for the organisation (what it wants to become).
Business strategy or competitive strategy focuses on how the organisation plans to compete in the market (the game plan) — it takes into specific
account the competitive environment and the competencies of the organisation.
An improvement strategy supports a vision for improvement in a part of, or across the whole organisation.

In practice corporate and business strategies are often interlinked. They will define the series of high level actions expressed as goals (longer term) and objectives (shorter term) to realise a vision for the organisation. They will also generally provide detail on how and when the goals and objectives which have been set will be realised.

Improvement strategies can either be focussed, for example improving quality in the warehouse, or broad, for example improving OTIF across a range of value streams. They should at all times be aligned with the corporate and business strategies. The main contributors to the field of strategy deployment have been Peter Drucker (management by objective) and more recently a range of writers on Hoshin Kanri, as well as the seminal works of Kaplan and Norton (The Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Focused Organisation).

Distilling the best from all of these writers we have developed the following principles or architecture to define effective deployment:

Strategy and execution should be treated as an integrated and ongoing process based on continuous improvement and PDCA cycles
Unlike traditional planning, strategy deployment is not an annual exercise but an iterative approach to transformation
Senior levels of the organisation should develop a deep understanding of the 'way things really work'
'Hard data' is often inaccurate and can cover only a small part of the reality
Knowledge and experience exist at all levels of the organisation and employees have important contributions to make
Effective execution requires context specific knowledge that only exists at the 'doing' level
Leaders don't tell but ask questions, and don't command but rather engage
Communicating interesting case studies or stories about the successful or unsuccessful deployment of the strategy are often the best way to transfer understanding and garner interest effectively

At root, the achievement of effective deployment is dependent on organisations making the transition from traditional planning approaches — where the emphasis is on a mechanical selection of the right measures — to focus more intensively on the realities of the deployment process itself.

When it comes to the tools for deployment we are of the view that the Balanced Scorecard combined with strategy mapping provides the most effective manner of deploying key performance metrics which support the business strategy.

The Balanced Scorecard can certainly be combined and integrated with other ‘balancing frameworks’ such as PQCDSEM which are often used at lower levels of the organisation especially in manufacturing.

When it comes to improvement strategies we have already indicated that these can be distinguished on a continuum between focused/specific through to broad-based. Our recommended approach to their deployment through the organisation is to use PDCA as the basis of our methodology supported by a combination of Lean and Hoshin tools, namely A3s, Catchball, and Visual Management. This is illustrated in the diagram below.

Borrowing from Pascal Dennis, the integration of PDCA and deployment can be represented in the following way:

This integrated approach can then be spelt out in the following way:

PLAN — Develop the high level plan

Start the process by developing the 'Mother A3' for the improvement strategy
Follow the broad A3 logic and process when compiling the first draft of the plan
Appoint a deployment leader that takes overall responsibility for the strategy

DO — Deploy the plan and implement

Develop 'Baby A3s' as appropriate in support of the higher level A3
Ensure alignment and focus through processes like 'Catchball' to ensure strong and wide participation
Repeat the process down the levels as practical (depends on maturity)

CHECK — Review the progress and results

Establish an appropriate management process with review cycles (Macro, Annual and Micro)
Develop a review system consisting of detailed agendas and procedures
Make abnormalities/deviations visible through exception management
Agree which structures will be responsible for each type of review

ACT — Solve problems and improve plans

Introduce changes to the plans as a result of the ongoing formal reviews
Introduce structured problem solving at all levels in the organisation
Introduce standardisation to enable further improvement and enhance sustainability

Reflect and improve on the deployment system

Reflect thoroughly on the effectiveness of the system and identify improvement opportunities
Introduce refinements and repeat the cycle

The tools supporting this deployment approach for improvement strategies have been indicated via A3s, Catchball and Visual Management.

Consolidating Deployment The deployment of both business and improvement strategies has to be supported by a range of key HR practices which will build a high performance culture of engagement. These practices include managing individual performance, recognition and reward as well as coaching and mentoring.