What major issues face global organizations to effectively execute a strategic plan?
A major challenge is communicating the strategy in a way that is understandable, compelling and actionable across the breadth of the organisation and making it meaningful to all levels of any organisational hierarchy.  It is important that all colleagues can understand how their work activities contribute to furthering the strategy.  The other major challenge of course is to resist the strong attraction of focusing on short-term tactics, as opposed to strategy, and not identifying and managing the spectrum of risks - strategic, financial and operational.

Would you briefly discuss how global organizations can position themselves to quickly adapt to disruptive events and technologies?          

They need to continuously monitor the external environment to understand the opportunities and threats that market disruptions, be they black swan type events or game-changing technologies, represent.  Often the near term impact might be modest, but the long term impact profound.

What do you see as possible common failures by organizations and leaders to effectively do so?
Most common failure is complacency and a resistance to acknowledge and recognise the disruptive threat until it’s too late.  Often this is brought about by long-term success and established leadership positions.

What would you like attendees of your talk at the upcoming ASP Conference to come away with?

I would like the attendees to come away with an appreciation that strategy is not a dry, theoretical and analytical activity or a static planning exercise.  Rather it is a  dynamic, and vital component of building better businesses through “forcing choice” about the priority allocation of scarce resources be those resources people, capital or even just time in the working day

Dr. Llyr Jones is Group Strategy and Corporate Development Director and a member of the Executive Committee at Chemring plc – a FTSE 250 listed company providing a range of advanced technology products and services to the defence, national security and aerospace markets.  He has worked across these sectors for over 30 years with his career spanning five continents.  Over this time, he has held a wide range of leadership posts focusing particularly on strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business development, industrial policy, and international affairs.  Llyr is a Chartered Director and Chartered Engineer as well as Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.  He holds degrees from several UK universities – including a PhD from the University of Southampton and an MBA from the Loughborough University School of Business and Economics.