Growth Pangs: Why Good Strategies Often Fail at Execution due to Planning & People.
Growth is a priority for businesses worldwide, but the path is often fraught with challenges—especially in dynamic markets like India. Studies reveal that 67% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution, highlighting that success requires more than planning. This blog explores two core “growth pangs” in planning and people, with real-world examples from Indian companies.
1. Planning: Aligning Vision with Reality
The first step in any growth strategy lies in planning, but even the best-laid plans can fall short if the foundation is weak. Let’s look at two common pitfalls:
A) Vague Objectives
The saying "If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there" resonates here. Without clearly defined, actionable objectives, teams often drift, chasing short-term wins rather than aligning with the larger vision. This lack of direction can lead to confusion and wasted resources.
A very popular airline had started with an ambitious objective to create a premium airline experience, but ultimately collapsed due to unclear strategic objectives. While the vision of luxury air travel was bold, the objectives lacked a grounded approach to profitability and market realities. The company prioritized creating an opulent experience without ensuring cost controls or understanding the profitability metrics required in India’s highly competitive aviation industry. This failure to align objectives with the market reality resulted in unsustainable costs and heavy debt, leading to downfall of this flamboyant airline.
B) Inadequate Ecosystem Alignment
Growth strategies don’t exist in a vacuum. For an initiative to succeed, it must align with the larger organizational ecosystem—its values, resources, and stakeholder interests. A misaligned ecosystem creates friction, slowing down or even derailing efforts before they get off the ground.
One of the most trusted corporate houses in India, decided to launch a “people’s car” by offering an affordable vehicle for the masses. However, the initial strategy failed to consider key ecosystem alignments, particularly in customer perception and safety standards. The brand misjudged how the public would react to a car positioned as “the cheapest,” overlooking the aspirational value Indian consumers attach to cars. Additionally, the manufacturing location was shifted mid-way, affecting production timelines and causing further delays in market entry. This misalignment between ambition and ecosystem realities hindered growth of the “people’s car”, despite its well-meaning vision.
2. People: The Heartbeat of Execution
Execution is a human endeavour, relying on individuals at every level to contribute. However, people-related challenges can often be the Achilles' heel of a growth strategy.
A) Lack of Ownership
When employees feel disconnected from the goals or are not accountable for outcomes, progress stalls. True growth requires individuals to see themselves as stakeholders in the success of the strategy. Without ownership, motivation dips, and execution falters.
Despite being the market leader, an Indian airline had to shut shop in the recent past primarily due to ownership issues and lack of internal accountability. As financial pressures increased, the airline faced difficulties in motivating and retaining employees, who felt disconnected from the company's goals amid an unstable leadership. This lack of ownership among key team members made it hard for the company to adapt to changing market demands, ultimately contributing to its financial struggles and eventual grounding.
B) Ineffective Communication
Clear communication is critical for smooth execution, but it's also where many strategies falter. Miscommunication can create misalignment across departments, cause misunderstandings, and erode trust, leaving teams uncertain and unable to act effectively on strategic goals.
When a current global leader in digital services and consulting first initiated its digital transformation strategy, it faced challenges in clearly communicating the goals and expectations to employees across global teams. The initial phases were marred by unclear instructions on new digital processes and a lack of unified messaging, leading to confusion among teams. As a result, project timelines were extended, and employee morale dipped. Over time, the company rectified these issues through more robust communication channels and change management efforts, but the initial delays underscored the importance of clear communication in executing strategic change.
The GEMS Solution: Turning Strategy into Action
GEMS, the Growth Execution Management SaaS platform, tackles these challenges head-on by providing an integrated solution for planning, people and more:
· For Planning: GEMS ensures clarity by setting actionable objectives and aligning them with the organization’s ecosystem.
· For People: GEMS fosters accountability and ownership, ensuring that every team member feels invested in the strategy.
Growth pangs related to planning and people may be inevitable, but they don’t have to derail your strategy. By acknowledging and addressing these common execution hurdles, organizations can ensure their strategies succeed—not just in boardrooms but in real-world results.
