Women CEOs on making strategy happen

Abstract

PurposeAs a professor of strategic management and as a consultant to organizations on strategy and change, the author focused on the activities that are necessary for leaders to create effective strategy and to execute successfully. The author has also been responsible for equipping the larger teams of strategy professionals (and future strategy professionals) who support these leaders with the approaches, the methods, and the tools necessary to plan effectively, to assess effectiveness, and to correct problems in strategy and execution. Whether long-term company leaders, entrepreneurs, or turnaround companies, chief executive officers (CEOs) understand that strategy and execution are requirements for growth and, ultimately, their unique responsibility. The paper aims to offer a view of strategy and execution from women CEOs of top companies, including those who weathered the financial crisis and others changing their business model as the climate changes. The paper offers a set of questions to help company leadership execute their strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper represents a viewpoint supported by secondary sources and financial data.FindingsCEOs whose companies have prospered during the Great Recession and beyond have a lot to teach us about strategic execution in an uncertain world. There is always a crisis or a change in industry structure that threatens strategic execution. This paper focuses on women and how they face this challenge as CEOs of top companies.Research limitations/implicationsStrategic execution must align with strategy or growth will not happen as planned.Practical implicationsThere are things CEOs and general managers can do to ensure their strategic execution leads to the results they plan. Those things have been identified in this paper.Social implicationsThe most powerful asset companies have is their talent base, their employees.Originality/valueThe corporate examples, the understanding of industry structure change, and the importance of talent and risk are seen through the lens of women CEOs.