Why Strategies Fail? A Review on Strategy Implementation

Abstract

Increased global competition has necessitated the recognition and critical role of strategy implementation by businesses and other organizations to ensure success. Although several studies admit that strategies frequently fail, it is not because of inadequate strategy formulation but due to deficiency in implementation. This is because the implementation aspect of strategy has attracted less research interest than strategic planning despite its crucial role in achieving performance outcomes in the organization. Therefore, this study seeks to guide decision-makers to identify the barriers to strategy implementation by reviewing literature using a narrative synthesis approach. The insights from the reviewed analysis showed that strategy implementation determines whether an organization excels, survives, or succumbs to the environmental pressure of competition. Further, it was revealed that strategy implementation fails due to low employee involvement, communication barriers, insufficient resources, low leadership capacity, inadequate monitoring, and evaluation practices. However, the major weakness was top management's lack of responsibility and initiative to convert strategic plans into workable actions that transform performance to accomplish desired outcomes. Thus, the study recommends that leaders communicate crafted strategies to stakeholders, prioritize allocation of resources, and design a practical roadmap to achieve strategy implementation to gain competitive advantage. The research suggested an outline to improve strategy implementation.