After obtaining my B Commerce (Marketing Management) from the University of Pretoria, I joined the Department of Trade and Industry, Branch: Board on Tariffs and Trade (now ITAC). Later, I joined the Competition Commission. After obtaining my MBA, I joined a commercial bank. Then, I landed my dream job at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Throughout my career, the core of my work involved ‘strategy.’ I always wondered why organizations/businesses in the same industry achieved different performance outcomes. Being in the same industry meant they were exposed to same environmental variables. Through my studies, I realized that only the external environmental variables were the same for organizations/businesses in the same industry. Internal variables may differ. This observation led to my doctoral degree.

Doctoral Study

In my doctoral thesis, I discovered that strategy is a complex construct. Organizations/businesses use this complex construct (strategy) as vehicle to achieve their goals or performance. Therefore, it is understandable that strategy execution fails. Moreover, the failure of strategy implementation is a longstanding issue. However, to be effective, strategy should be based on ‘competitive advantage.’

Competitive Advantage

Competitive advantage seems to be a contested concept and is described in various ways. Regardless, it facilitates strategy implementation. Furthermore, it ensures healthy financial returns. In a nutshell, competitive advantage means the organization/business performs processes better or differently than the competition in offering customer value.

My doctoral thesis identified that competitive advantage consists of three interrelated dimensions, namely (a) the arena where the organization chooses to compete, (b) customer value, derived from the utility of the offering, whether economic, functional, psychological, or a combination, and (c) resources to provide customer value in the chosen competitive arenas. Of the resources, people are the most essential because of their capacity to transform other resources into customer-valued offerings.

Strategy Execution and its Failure

The transformation of resources into customer-valued offerings represents the employees’ daily activities or jobs. Performing daily activities constitutes strategy execution. The unavailability of people, whether physical or psychological, is one of the top-ranking and recurring reasons for the strategy execution failure. Hence, my primary research focus is people as part of the resources dimension of competitive advantage.

Fully Functioning People: A Requisite for Effective Strategy Execution

People need to be fully functioning to execute strategy effectively. To be fully functioning means to thrive or flourish, failing which results in ill-being. The most common form of ill-being is occupational disease, such as stress and depression. Flourishing ensues from satisfying peoples’ three inborn motivational needs: competence/mastery, autonomy/meaning, and relatedness/belonging.

Competence means people yearn to learn and grow, or master their environment. This desire is satisfied by learning and development (L&D)/training. Successful L&D opportunities offer participants knowledge, skills and attitudes they deem (a) necessary, and (b) meaningful, in effectively performing their daily activities. Furthermore, they should be permitted to use their knowledge and skills in executing their daily activities. Competence catalyzes autonomy or self-determination.

Autonomy suggests people find meaning in life by being free to be their authentic selves without infringing on the autonomy of other people. Freedom entails thinking, experimenting, learning, taking calculated risks, and innovating. Freedom enables people to adapt proactively to change. Experiencing autonomy, in turn, nurtures relatedness.

Relatedness denotes that a person ‘belong.’ Belonging implies that a person has at least a few lasting, pleasant, and meaningful interpersonal relationships.

The satisfaction of the inborn motivational needs influences peoples’ feelings, thinking, and actions. People experience these motivational needs as the ability to get ahead in life, find meaning, and belong. Thus, these inborn needs serve as motivational levers ensuring the optimum functioning of people or flourishing.

Mechanism to Activate the Motivational Levers

Leaders and managers can use these motivational levers to influence employees’ willingness to execute strategy. Motivation is a secondary general management task and imperative for successful strategy execution. The mechanism to satisfy the motivational needs is “structural dimensions (noun) of organization (verb) for implementing strategy.”

Essentially, structural dimensions of organization for executing strategy enable coordination and cooperation. Coordination and cooperation are two of the primary general management tasks. Coordination harmonizes all activities within the organization/business to facilitate its smooth functioning. Cooperation involves impelling people to optimize their competence voluntarily in executing strategy. Coordination and cooperation interplay – coordination partially regulates cooperation and cooperation influences coordination. Coordination and cooperation derive, respectively, from the framework and processes structural dimensions of organization for executing strategy as illustrated in the figure on the landing page.

Framework Dimension

Framework is more or less stable. It systematically links activities and resources of the organization/business through structureand systems. Structure embodies the formal arrangement of roles and responsibilities, as reflected in job design. It also stipulates authority, policies, procedures, culture, and leadership. Systems allocate resources via budgets, management information, training/learning and development, and operational controls.

Processes Dimension

Processes are transient, involve individual behaviors or actions, and reflect the relationships between organizational/business members. Processes contain interaction – specifically communication on the one hand and sanctions – explicitly power and rewards, on the other. Interaction and sanctions continuously create roles in the minds of organizational/business members. These roles may or may not parallel the formal roles specified by the framework dimension. Thus, relationships between organizational/business members create meaning and consensus while governing behavior, including employees’ willing pursuit of organizational/business performance.

Research underscores the structural dimensions of organization for executing strategy as contributing to the successful strategy execution or its failure.

The Diagnostic Tool

The diagnostic tool “The Royal Path of Optimizing Human Functioning for Effective Strategy Execution”, illustrates the mechanism to activate the motivational levers in context of the organization/business. This sophisticated tool is portrayed in the illustration on my landing page.

This tool fuses the different schools of thought on this topic into a comprehensive whole. This diagnostic tool may not resonate with everyone, although it is firmly anchored in sound scientific knowledge. However, I am pleased when people benefit from my input.

Way Forward

In my career I came across a number of good managers and teachers who mentored me, contributing to my successes. I would like to pass along my knowledge, skills, and experience, to people who come across my work. In so doing, I hope to contribute to their success.