1.1 Crittenden, V. L., & Crittenden, W. F. (2008). Building a capable organization; The eight levers of strategy implementation. Business Horizons

Victoria L. Crittenden a,*, William F. Crittenden

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Strategy;

Implementation;

Managerial levers;

Performance

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1.Top-down or laissez-fair senior management

style,

  1. Unclear strategy and conflicting priorities,
  1. An ineffective senior management team,
  1. Poor vertical communication,
  1. Poor coordination across functions, businesses,

or borders, and

  1. Inadequate down-the-line leadership skills and

development.

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  1. Consumer companies–—69 stories (9 internationally-

based)

  1. Business-to-business companies–—15 stories (5

internationally-based)

  1. Service companies–—33 stories (3 internationallybased)
  1. Nonprofit companies–—7 stories (2 internationally-

based)

Bonoma and Crittenden (1988) suggest that implementation is comprised of two main variables, structures and managerial skills. Structures provide the framework or configuration in which companies operate effectively. Managerial skills are the behavioral activities that managers engage in within the structures developed by the organization.

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  1. Actions–—who, what, and when of cross-functional

integration and company collaboration;

  1. Programs–—instilling organizational learning and

continuous improvement practices;

  1. Systems–—installing strategic support systems;

and

  1. Policies–—establishing strategy supportive policies

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Interacting–—the exercising of strategic leadership;

  1. Allocating–—understanding when and where to

allocate resources;

  1. Monitoring–—tying rewards to achievement; and
  1. Organizing–—the strategic shaping of corporate

culture.

Three levels of strategy form a hierarchy of strategy within a company:corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy.

Southern Home Developers

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Florida and Goodnight (2005) suggest that a company’s most important asset is not its raw materials, transportation systems, or political influence. Rather, these authors claim that a company’s most important asset is its creative capital–—that is, the creative thinkers in the firm.

Ross and Weill (2002) suggest that companies that manage their information technology investments successfully will generate 40% higher returns than their competitors. Essentially, the strategic support system provides timely access to both qualitative and quantitative data about customers, human resources, revenues and costs, and inventory/order fulfillment.

Mapping the cross-functional decision process into a decision-support system enabled managers to quantify subjective interactions and include situational aspects of marketing and productioninteractions into a more easily understood framework

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