Executing Strategy introduces the principles of effective strategy implementation. The Reading emphasizes the interdependence of strategy formulation and execution in achieving and sustaining superior competitive performance. It discusses why organizations must sometimes shift their strategies and identifies reasons that strategies often fail. It argues that organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities are required to execute strategies successfully. The main reading then develops an approach that emphasizes the congruence framework and its building blocks. It concludes by highlighting the need for ambidextrous leaders. Executing Strategy also contains three supplemental readings. The first examines ambidexterity and congruence at IBM under Louis Gerstner. The second considers the Balanced Scorecard as an alternative framework for strategy execution. The third discusses the role culture in strategy execution at NUMMI, the joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. What does it take to transform an organization before a crisis hits? How can leaders initiate major transformations proactively? The key often lies in strategic renewal - a set of practices that can guide leaders into a new era of innovation by building strategy, experimentation and execution into the day-to-day fabric of the organization. It's not easy: leaders find it much easier to resist change than to embrace it.

The conventional wisdom about how best to pursue growth--launch a slew of initiatives in high-potential areas; appoint some promising young managers to lead them; locate them safely away from the established businesses--is a recipe for failure, according to the authors. Meanwhile, CEOs spend too much time on managing today's earnings and too little time on building the kind of learning organization and culture that growth requires. This article explores six common mistakes that executives make in this arena: (1) Failing to provide the right kind of oversight. The CEO should spend meaningful time with the team and with potential customers. (2) Not putting the best, most experienced talent in charge. Seasoned executives in the core businesses, rather than ambitious young MBAs, should be assigned to growth initiatives. (3) Assembling the wrong team and staffing up prematurely. CEOs should focus on capabilities, not who's available, and staff up only when the strategy, business model, and value proposition are clear. (4) Taking the wrong approach to performance assessment. Milestones relevant to each stage of an initiative's development should be established, and key assumptions in the business plan should be linked to the financial forecast. (5) Not knowing how to fund and govern a start-up. The funding of early-stage ventures should be separated from the corporation's annual budget cycle. (6) Failing to leverage the organization's core capabilities. CEOs must play a central role in helping growth initiatives tap the resources of the core businesses.

James White, the new CEO of Jamba Juice, has successfully averted bankruptcy and must now decide the future path for Jamba Juice, the leader in the smoothie and fresh bar industry. This two part case presents the various strategic options White is considering. It then asks participants to determine the best strategic path and how this path should be specifically implemented. The follow on (B) case describes what White actually did and presents the results.

James White, the new CEO of Jamba Juice, has successfully averted bankruptcy and must now decide the future path for Jamba Juice, the leader in the smoothie and fresh bar industry. This two part case presents the various strategic options White is considering. It then asks participants to determine the best strategic path and how this path should be specifically implemented. The follow on B case describes what White actually did and presents the results.

In spring 2009, Chrysler entered a prepackaged bankruptcy and exited 40 days later in a deal with Fiat, the U.S. Treasury, and the UAW that kept the automaker alive. Looking forward, what was necessary for Chrysler to move beyond the life support it had received? What was possible? Looking back, how should the company's restructuring be assessed?

This short case describes the tensions that often arise between finance executives attempting to curtail unproductive activities and strategy executives trying to optimize overall firm performance.

The empirical evidence is that only a tiny fraction of organizations live to age 40. Why this should be is a puzzle, since when firms are doing well they have all the resources (financial, physical, and intellectual) to continue to be successful. Yet the evidence is that most organizations fail. Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary theory, this article illustrates how multi-level selection processes help organizations adapt in the face of technological and market changes. This process, along with the concepts of organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities, may help organizations survive over long time periods. One deliberate and repeatable version of this process enabled IBM to generate more than $15 billion in growth between 2000 and 2005.

This is a note to introduce the principles for effectively implementing a new strategy. It emphasizes the interdependence of strategy and execution in developing and sustaining superior competitive performance. Primarily based on the notion that strategy should be a continual activity conducted by general managers, it outlines a practical methodology for realigning a firm's executional model whenever strategy changes.

In the past 15 years, IBM has undergone a remarkable transformation from a struggling seller of hardware to a successful broad range solutions provider. Underlying this change is a story of foresighted strategy and disciplined execution--of connecting knowing to doing. In strategic terms, the IBM transformation illustrates the ideas behind dynamic capabilities, showing how the company has been able to sense changes in the marketplace and to seize these opportunities by reconfiguring existing assets and competencies. We review the literature on dynamic capabilities and, using IBM as an example, show how their strategy process permits them both to explore new markets and technologies (e.g., life sciences, pervasive computing) as well as to exploit mature products and markets (e.g., mainframe computers, middleware).