The best laid plans often fail due to poor execution and follow through. This is what GREAT companies work at becoming great at. Making plan execution a priority is where many companies fail. They simply develop a great plan and put it in a binder on the shelf. Even an average plan that is well executed will drive better results than a great plan that you have never implemented.
To ensure that your execution is successful, begin by assigning the right team members to every task. Determine what the critical milestones are in order to accomplish your plan in the desired time frame. Project Software provides great tools for laying out tasks and critical milestones. Consider putting your execution plans into Project Software to track and monitor your execution. Make sure that you capture and understand dependencies that can slow down or derail a project. A new product that is ready to be launched but doesn’t have the support or budgeted resources from Sales and Marketing is doomed for failure. Success is buried in these sorts of details. Be realistic about the resources needed and provide them. Follow up with team members on a regular basis or establish bi-weekly or monthly checkpoints to track progress that the team is making. This process MUST be done for each initiative in your strategic plan.
Develop metrics for each initiative that will tell you how it is progressing and if it is on track to achieve the goals you set out to achieve. Engage the team in reporting progress through these metrics on monthly basis.