The strategy cascade

Your strategy represents your best guess at achieving your goals. It doesn't matter how good these guesses are if you can't execute your own strategy.

When it comes to execution, it's important that there is a clear and logical connection between different strategic objectives and their activities.

If I pick one of your strategic objectives at random, and ask you how will you achieve objective X, your answer should be "We will do A, B, and C." If I ask why do you want to achieve Y, your answer should be "Because it ties into A and C."

When writing down objectives it's important to use active voice, verbs, and be as precise as you can. You aren't writing a poem.

Here is an example of a well written innovation objective:

Increase revenue from products and businesses launched in the last three years by 20%.

When you put down such a crisp objective, then you can focus your ingenuity on how could you achieve it and how will you measure it. As you work through these two questions make sure to establish sub-objectives that will hep you get there.

That's how you build a strong strategy cascade, with sound answers to both why you are aiming for the objectives you are, and how will you achieve them.