At DuPont Co., internal consultant George Cressman advises executives to think of strategy implementation as a process that helps actionoriented managers learn more about the operating arena. Implementation is not simply the end point of strategy development. The marketplace is the arbiter of strategy, the judge, and the jury. One form of marketplace suicide is trying to create the perfect strategy. Because putting a strategy into the marketplace alters the marketplace, competitors respond, the marketplace changes, and the strategy can no longer be perfect.
Most managers are action biased.
They like performance, not just because their compensation is linked to results. Creating an environment with clear opportunities for action, learning, and results motivates managers to implement well, Mr. Cressman continued. Steps to Success. Typically, marketers fail to market their own marketing plans internally, where people have competing objectives and skeptically view requests made of them. He recommended that marketers apply SWOT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to their own marketing programs.