A high percentage of organizations fail to execute strategy successfully.   What are some common areas of failure and reasons for it?

Failing to have organizational stakeholder engagement would certainly feature highly together with failing to have a well-defined strategy with the application of agile practices. Failing to have an updated current vision and mission is another, with visibility of the dashboard of projects and other work that is needed to deliver an organization's strategy.

Some of the reasons for this include low levels of organizational maturity and not having the right tools required to deliver on strategy. Another is not have good organizational change management in place.

COVID-19 has had a large impact on many organizations worldwide.  What should be learned from it for organizations to plan for better agility?

In some cases setting a shorter horizon like 6 months and reviewing the plan in a rolling cycle has helped some organizations deal with COVID-19. It has also meant considering new products and new markets as several industry sectors will take years to recover.

As more and more working from home has become the new norm, finding ways to engage with workers through the use of technology has become critical.

Has the last year affected your thoughts on successful strategy development and execution (in new ways or affirming your beliefs)?

Increased communication is required and tools in the cloud that not only help develop strategy but also to track progress and motivate employees toward the contribution of an organsations vision and mission has become important.

It has also been important to recognize each employees situation and ensuring there are boundaries and a work life balance.

What can participants to at the ASP Annual Conference expect to learn at your discussion?

Our panel discussion will include, why strategy execution is so difficult and complex? How strategy can be executed applying agile principles and some of the critical elements that strategists can use to successfully execute strategy.

Nick Hadjinicolaou is a certified project and program management trainer (PMI PgMP, PMP), AgilePM Certified and a Certified IMC Management Consultant (CMC) having completed an MBA and MPM from the University of Adelaide.

In 2019, he completed his PhD in project management from Torrens University Australia in the area of Supporting Project Success in Australia through the Implementation of Project Portfolio Management publishing several papers on strategy execution, strategic project management and organisational agility.   

He is also the founding President of the Association for Strategic Planning Australia and enjoys networking and helping students and professionals progress in their careers.

With over 30 years of industry and education experience, previous senior leadership roles have included Portfolio, Program and Project Management, PMO Management, ICT Management and consulting roles for various private and public organisations including IBM, Telstra, 3Pillars Asia Pacific, Business SA, the state government and Laureate Australia.

Projects have included the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the global roll-out of an expense management system into IBM Hong Kong, IBM China, IBM Taiwan and IBM India. Major data center relocations, infrastructure upgrades, agile application development, portal and website developments, change management and business digital transformations. 

Dr. Hadjinicolaou will be presenting at the upcoming Association for Strategic Planning Virtual Conference.