What Are The Barriers To implementing a Strategy? And How To Overcome Them

The difficulty of implementing a strategy and executing it successfully into tangible results is the most persistent challenge in business. Executives often cite the challenge of implementing and executing a strategy as one of their biggest pain points. This is often because of the barriers that exist when implementing the strategy. Common barriers to implementing a strategy are Cultural, External, Operational, and Organisational. A study conducted by Fortune magazine revealed that 90% of strategies failed during implementation (Waterman et al, 1988). 

Barriers to implementing a strategy can be defined as any internal or external obstacle that hinders an organisation's ability to successfully translate its formulated strategy into actions, resource allocation and ultimately, desired results. A barrier is the reason why a good plan fails to become a reality.

What are common strategy implementation barriers?  

Strategy formulation is just half the battle; the major challenges lie in implementing and executing, as faced by Ford Motor Company in the mid-2000s. Before Alan Mulally took over as company CEO in 2006, Ford was facing deep financial trouble and had a major problem with strategy implementation and execution stemming from a toxic corporate culture. Ford had a series of strategies, but most notably the "Way Forward Strategy", which included strategic moves such as: 

1. Selling of core brands like Jaguar, LandRover and Volvo.
2. Cutting Costs and Capacity
3. Focusing on a smaller number of vehicle platforms.

Consequently, the Way Forward Strategy failed to produce the desired results due to implementation barriers and execution issues. One of the barriers to implementing a strategy, as faced by Ford, is cultural. A cultural barrier is one of misalignment where the strategy doesn't align with the organisation's culture. There can also exist a barrier of accountability or a lack of accountability, where there is no clear ownership or accountability. Arguably, it could be determined that these barriers existed throughout the Ford Motor Company during the late 1990s and mid-2000s. 

One of the reasons the Way Forward Strategy failed at Ford was because of itt;s famous silo political culture. The culture saw different business units operating as warring fiefdoms. When executives presented their reports, they would consistently show their own departments as being profitable and achieving KPI targets even though the company was in fact losing millions. Ford's financial problems were probably caused by a lack of accountability within these global business units because the company prized political appeasement over honesty. Executives would not admit their problems, and no one was held accountable for cross-department failures.  The period of the late 1990s