Disappointing as it may sound, no organization is capable of perfectly carrying out its strategic vision as it is laid out in its statements or memos, without losing some of its quality to different correcting forces. There is no denying that some things are easier said than done and real-world limitations significantly verify what has been outlined in documents or graphs.  In fact, big-scale objectives and final products that result from attempts at their execution at a lower level in the company structure are oddly headed in divergent directions.  What this lack of coordination means for companies is, first and foremost, that there is a worrying disorientation that cuts across their operations and endangers their business potential, which always benefits most from concerted, well-choreographed efforts.  And while focusing on utter perfection in aligning the strategy with its practical execution may be futile, business leaders should not be afraid to rely on top executive education in their hunt for the most effective response to this challenge.

It was Professor Iansiti of Harvard Business School, a renowned expert in areas of innovation and organization, who recently raised the question of bridging the gap between the two manifestations of a company's strategy in a bid to maximize its performance.  In his book, co-written with Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's former development team leader, he argues that there is a need for a more global and unified approach to carrying out business strategies and, drawing on practical experiences of Sinofsky, he puts forward practical, integrated ways to make it work.  Essentially, Iansiti extols the merits of what he calls “strategic integrity”, a management policy that seeks to make the official written strategy and the emerging day-to-day execution one, to the benefit of the organization.  In a competitive and dynamic market characteristic of modern business, joining the two with skill, with the help of top executive education will make the difference between success and failure.

What is strategic integrity in practice then? It seems to be a set of competences and procedures that senior managers have at their disposal in their struggle with the greatest threats to the successful execution of the strategy. Iansiti identifies organizational inertia as one of them and argues that businesses need to learn to respond to changes, including strategic ones, faster and with greater confidence.  For that they need exquisite planning operations that better reflect market transformations and are possibly more inclusive and cooperative, supreme and flexible structures that fit strategic goals and foster constructive communication, streamlined processes and management that keep up with the challenges as they keep showing up.  Developing a more holistic system to execute business strategy is a complex and long-term effort that can be accelerated by top executive education.  Most importantly though, if successfully applied, it is bound to pay off.