Robin Speculand is a former Asia Pacific Regional Vice President for Citigroup. He has lived and worked in the UK, US and Australia and has operated in Asia since 1989. Find out about his hard-hitting new book Bricks to Bridges: Make Your Strategy Come Alive in this engaging interview.
An interview with Robin Speculand
Interview by Alistair Craven
Robin Speculand is the CEO of Bridges Consultancy Int, which specializes in making strategy come alive.
Before founding Bridges, he was Asia Pacific Regional Vice President for Citigroup. He has lived and worked in the UK, US and Australia and has operated in Asia since 1989. He holds an MBA from the National University of Singapore and is the Founder and President of the Business Roundtable for Innovative Management, a management think tank. He is known as a masterful event facilitator, an engaging public speaker and a writer of books and articles.
Speculand's new book Bricks to Bridges: Make Your Strategy Come Alive shows how most strategy implementation efforts don't work; as many as 90 per cent fade out along the way or simply fail to deliver. Only 10 per cent succeed. Overwhelmingly, this is because most business leaders waste critical time creating ineffective change management activities. They need to grasp the fact that to succeed, business strategies require implementation over an extensive period of time.
First of all, welcome to ManagementFirst. Can you tell us a little about Bridges Business Consultancy and your day-to-day job?
Robin Speculand:
Have you ever spent weeks or even months creating a new initiative only to see it fizzle out? Or been to a workshop where you craft the new direction and then get so caught up in the day-to-day business the workshop action plans are derailed?
Bridges is a business consultancy that specializes in making strategy come alive. Its genesis was the frustration of seeing so many implementations fail and the desire and passion to ensure that leaders successfully implement the new strategy so as to make it part of their organization’s DNA.
Bridges works with governments, multinational and local companies across three different continents implementing strategy. I work with our clients assisting them to implement their strategy, present key note speeches and write books and articles.
Your new book Bricks to Bridges tackles what you cite as the main culprit for billions of dollars of waste in today’s organizations: poor strategy implementation. How have companies got themselves into this mess in the first place?
Robin Speculand:
Great question. For many years our predominant focus has been the challenge of identifying and creating the right strategy for an organization. No easy feat in itself. Numerous tools have been created and books written on the subject. The realization, however, that a good strategy does not guarantee success is starting to shift the focus from not only creating a strategy but how you implement it.
“Nine out of ten strategies fail to be implemented successfully” -Bridges Business Consultancy Int Five Year Research
Most leaders underestimate the implementation challenge and what is involved. They feel that once they have created a new strategy the hardest part is over. Not true. The hardest part is just beginning. Our research shows that the one in ten organizations who successfully implement their strategy double the effort that has been spent on crafting it.
In addition, leaders have a wide choice of tools, techniques and consultants to help them create strategies. But when it comes to implementation, they have largely been left to fumble ahead on their own.
In the five years you spent conducting research for Bricks to Bridges, you interviewed hundreds of executives. Were there many shocks and surprises along the way, or were the revelations roughly in line with your expectations?
Robin Speculand:
The biggest surprise was the percentage of failures and as such, how many organizations within 12 months of staring to implement the strategy had returned to business as usual. Leaders sometimes spend years crafting strategy, and failure to implement it not only costs billions of dollars but wastes hundred of thousands of hours and demoralizes staff members.
Strategy implementation has a 90 per cent failure rate. We would not tolerate a 90 per cent customer or employee dissatisfaction rate or a 90 per cent failure to close sales rate. And yet for far too long we have accepted poor implementation. This is mainly because the study of strategy implementation is a relatively new field.
When Kevin Rollins, President and CEO of Dell, was asked the secrets of Dell success, he explained that it was not their strategy, as everyone knows Dell’s strategy; it was their ability to execute the strategy. Like making a plan to diet or exercise, it is not the plan itself that makes the difference, it is implementing it.
Today in business we are just beginning to see the pendulum swing away from the importance of creating strategy to the importance of successfully implementing it. Building a culture that can successfully implement is proving to be a business differentiator.
The other surprising discovery from our research came from the 10 per cent who were successful. They did not follow the traditional fundamentals of change management but went beyond them. We discovered six new fundamentals that compliment the old change management view.
Eight Traditional Fundamentals
1. Communicating the Vision
2. Identifying Objects
3. Creating a Sense of Urgency
4. Training
5. Identifying Change Agents
6. Rewarding and Recognizing
7. Setting and Celebrating Milestones
8. Monitoring Success
Six New Fundamentals
For the right results, take the right action
Taking the right action is the catalyst that moves organizations from strategy creation to strategy implementation. The right action is the progression of action steps you need to take to create the right results.
Double the effort
It takes at least twice the effort to implement strategy as it does to create it. The second new fundamental of implementation is that whatever time, resources, effort and energy it took to create your strategy, you will need to at least double it for successful implementation.
It’s not rocket science, it’s discipline
Successful implementation is not complex but it does require discipline; the discipline to do the things you’re supposed to do when you need to do them and to keep on doing them until you achieve the right results.
It’s like healthy living. We know that a healthy lifestyle is good for us, yet most people do not exercise enough and do not eat the right food. Bruce Nordstrom, head of Nordstrom’s, the US clothing retailer, was asked why Nordstrom’s is so successful. He replied, “We do not do anything different; we just do what we are supposed to do.”
Controlled chaos!
Staff must work both the old way and the new way simultaneously while there is chaos all around them.
The basics of Change Management 101 say that before making a change an organization must be taken out of equilibrium and into chaos and then back into equilibrium. During this transitional stage, everyone has to deal with the chaos that follows and minimize the disturbance period. The period when the organization is in chaos and staff members are unsure about what to focus on and what is important as they move forward.
Theory promises: success sells
It’s easier to sell a success than a theory.
6. Constant Review
It’s only when you constantly review the implementation of your strategy that you reinforce its importance and demonstrate the commitment needed to overcome numerous obstacles. Implementing strategy requires tremendous effort that needs to be coordinated to achieve the desired results. To ensure this happens, leaders must constantly review the actions being taken.
You highlight the fact that, staggeringly, up to 90 per cent of strategy implementation efforts fail. In your opinion, why is it that organizations continue to invest heavily into an area where they are clearly not proficient?
Robin Speculand:
In a nutshell, because the payoff is large. If you look at the companies who are good at implementing strategy such as Dell, Shouldice Hospital in Toronto and Southwest Airlines, they are all leaders in their field and tremendously successful.
How big an obstacle is organizational culture to strategy implementation?
Robin Speculand:
Organizational culture is one of the eight elements on the Implementation Compass™ and very critical to strategy implementation. When an organization starts out on its implementation journey, it communicates why it’s important to adopt the new strategy and may even announces measures for success. But it often does nothing to change the way it conducts its day-to-day business. As a result, the implementation loses momentum and eventually dies.
Successful strategy implementation comes from changing the way you operate – both in the way you conduct business and the way things get done internally. This involves changing the day-to-day activities for your staff.
There’s actually nothing new or startling about this instruction, but how often do managers expect to change organizational culture without changing their approach? It is like taking a wrong turn – and then doing it again! Ludicrous? You’d be surprised just how often organizations repeat mistakes they’ve made before.
Culture has many different meanings. In the context of strategy implementation, we define culture as ‘the way that people do things in organizations.’ Culture drives the way people deal with customers, how they do their work, and how they deal with problems. It drives human behaviour. Culture is, in fact, what makes Dell different from HP, Citigroup different from JP Morgan, and Southwest Airlines different from American Airlines. After all, computer companies all offer technical solutions, banks all deal with money and airlines fly people from place to place. Their cultures, however, define how they do what they do differently. Differing cultures also drive the behaviour of the staff so an organization should be conscious of the culture it cultivates.
Your book centres on what you call the “Implementation Compass.” Can you explain what this means?
Robin Speculand:
For far too long we have struggled to transform organizations without a framework to guide us. The Implementation Compass™ is a generic tool for making strategy come alive. It is not only the bases of my new book Bricks to Bridges that explains how to implement strategy, but also the consultancy tool we use in Bridges to guide organizations.
The Implementation Compass™ covers the eight critical elements of successful implementation and allows you to first assess where your organization is and then to focus on the key elements that will make the biggest difference.
In my book I explain how to use the compass is a straight talking, no-nonsense and uniquely laid out guide that is invaluable to any business that truly wants to make fundamental organizational transformation. The book starts off where so many strategy books stop – it explains how to implement your strategy while sharing “what works”, “watch outs” and case studies.
The eight elements are listed below along with the questions to assess your organization readiness for implementation. Try it by simply ranking each element on a scale of one to ten on the compass; where one is very poor and ten is excellent and then join the dots create a radar chart.
People: It is not leadership that implements strategy but people
Questions to consider: Do you have the right calibre of people? Do they have the competencies to execute the new strategy? Are they motivated to do so?
Biz Case: The emotional and numerical rational for adopting the strategy
Questions to consider: Do people know why the strategy is centre stage? Do they know what to do differently on the Monday morning? Do they have the right tools and techniques to implement the strategy?
Communication: People can only adopt a strategy if they know about it and understand it
Questions to consider: Do all your staff know what the new strategy is and why it has been adopted? Is the strategy communicated in a way that it comes alive?
Measurement: “You must inspect what you expect.” Have the right measures in place
Questions to consider: Do you have the right measures for the new strategy? Are the measures being leveraged to guide the implementation?
Culture: You must change the day-to-day activities of your staff members and have a culture that support and fosters change
Questions to consider: Has the fundamental way you are working changed so as to encourage the adoption of the new culture? Are you using the language of the new strategy?
Process: There must be congruence between what you say you are going to do (strategy implementation) and what you are doing (the process)
Questions to consider: Do your processes support or hinder the new strategy? Are you equipped to redesign processes so that they are more supportive and effective?
Reinforcement: You must reinforce the expected behaviours so that they are continuously repeated
Questions to consider: When staff members step in to the unknown and demonstrate the new behaviours, are they recognized and rewarded? Does the reinforcement encourage them to continue to demonstrate the desired new behaviours?
Review: You must constantly review to make sure the right actions are being taken to deliver the right results
Questions to consider: Do you know if the actions being taken are producing the right results? Do you know what has been learned from the implementation in the last 90 days?
The Implementation Compass™
In your book you state that, from your research, the most common vehicle for communicating change initiatives to staff is e-mail. However, another part of the book shows how as little as 7 per cent of an e-mail message is actually communicated to its recipients. In light of this, how worrying, then, is your original finding?
Robin Speculand:
In Chapter 6 on “Communication” I address how to effectively communicate a strategy beyond the mugs and t-shirts. After completing the crafting of the strategy, the implementation challenge frequently starts with need for effective communication. After all how can the people who are going to implement the strategy – the staff members – do so if they do not know what the strategy is and what they are expected to do? One of the top three reasons for strategy implementation failure is poor communication.
In the October 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review, Kaplan and Norton (creators of the Balance Scorecard) reported that their research revealed that on average 95 per cent are unaware or do not understand the organization’s strategy.
Despite the phenomenal rise and popularity of e-mail, the medium of preference for communicating a new strategy is seldom – if ever at all – via e-mail. Although it’s an excellent form of communication for everyday use, e-mail should rarely be used as a standalone means of communicating an important message.
E-mail is a one-way communication that may or may not be read and consider that communication is made up of:
58 per cent - body language
35 per cent - tone of voice
7 per cent - alignment between your words
Therefore consider that when you send an email only 7 per cent of the message is communicated.
A short, well-written e-mail with a catchy title has a better chance of catching people’s attention, but even then, the message must be reinforced by a variety of other means. This is because different people learn in different ways. By varying the means of communication, you stand a better chance of having staff members understand the message. By constantly repeating it, you also emphasize its importance. In Bricks to Bridges I explain ideas such as the 7X 7X rule. To communicate successfully you must tell staff members the message 7 times in 7 different ways.
You have spent many years advising governments and blue-chip companies such as Microsoft and Citigroup on how to achieve the goals that a new strategy sets in place. What are the differences, if any, between strategy implementation in a public setting and implementation within a business such as Microsoft?
Robin Speculand:
In some countries we worked in we found the government lagging behind the local business with respect to their business acumen. In some of the government areas such as the military, the need for efficiency and smooth operations is even greater than in business and it is ironic that we have now gone full circle from businesses studying the art of war to the military now studying and learning from leading businesses such as Microsoft. The Ministry of Defence in Singapore for example sends staff members on learning trips to businesses in the United States.
In your book you also state that “today’s excellence becomes tomorrow’s standard.” What are the implications of this statement for strategy development and execution?
Robin Speculand:
The most important implication is “never settle”. As soon as you stop to celebrate your success the competition will attack. Just look at what happened to IBM at the end of the 1980s when they went from Fortune's most admired company to firing their CEO, laying of staff members and showing a quarterly loss, all for the first time ever.
Excellence is a moving escalator and what was excellent today will become the standard for tomorrow. Therefore businesses need to be constantly practicing “Kaizen” and challenging the staff members to achieve more.
In what ways can organizations measure and evaluate the progress of a business strategy?
Robin Speculand:
Measures are one of the eight elements on the Implementation Compass™ and are critical to strategy implementation. It is, however, very tough to identify the right measures that will reflect the strategy implementation and drive the right behaviours.
It is vital that an organization ensures that its key indicators are measuring for tomorrow’s strategy, not today’s. The leadership must identify the right measures to track the new strategy.
Although the process of creating the measures is not complicated, selecting the right measures and implementing them can be challenging as focusing on specific measures will affect people’s behaviour.
Consider the example of the outlet managers of a fast food chain who paid only lip service to many of management’s measures. This is because they knew the only measurement that managers rigorously checked was how much cooked chicken each outlet threw away – a measure they called "chicken efficiency."
So naturally outlet managers focused, as many people do, on keeping their bosses happy. They easily hit their chicken efficiency targets; they simply didn’t cook any chicken until somebody ordered it! If management, however, had measured a composite of indicators, they would have found that customers had to wait up to 20 minutes for their meal and had become so dissatisfied with the ‘fast’ food service that they never returned – but at least the outlet managers hit their targets!
Therefore the challenge for leaders is to identify the right measures, I recommend using Strategy Maps and the Balanced Scorecard approach and to make sure the measures are driving the right behaviours.
Finally, what interests you outside of your professional life, and why?
Robin Speculand:
Once a quarter I will compete in a triathlon as I find the training and preparation a great way to eat healthy, recover from sitting too long on airplanes, and stay in shape.
