What Has Been Done When the Work Is Done?

Abstract

If you want to improve, you have to know what you are doing right now. A strategy has to be anchored in current reality and must be guided by a shared vision. In large organisations strategy is often only summarily communicated; a good communications strategy comprises an extensive explication and translation of the strategic goals to operational targets and projects. An important source of misunderstanding about the implementation of strategy is that strategic management approaches it as a “How?” question, while operations management approaches the same issue as a “Why?” question. Much wasted energy can be traced back to descriptions of what we have and what we want that are too vague and many interventions are only indirectly linked to the results we want to obtain.