Reasons why strategic plans fail
There are many reasons why strategic plans fail, especially:
- Failure to understand the customer
- why do they buy
- is there a real need for the product
- inadequate or incorrect marketing research
- Inability to predict environmental reaction
- what will competitors do
- fighting brands
- price wars
- will government intervene
- Over-estimation of resource competence
- can the staff, equipment, and processes handle the new strategy
- failure to develop new employee and management skills
- Failure to coordinate
- reporting and control relationships not adequate
- organizational structure not flexible enough
- Failure to obtain senior management commitment
- failure to get management involved right from the start
- failure to obtain sufficient company resources to accomplish task
- Failure to obtain employee commitment
- new strategy not well explained to employees
- no incentives given to workers to embrace the new strategy
- Under-estimation of time requirements
- no critical path analysis done
- Failure to follow the plan
- no follow through after initial planning
- no tracking of progress against plan
- no consequences for above
- Failure to manage change
- Inadequate understanding of the internal resistance to change
- Lack of vision on the relationships between processes, technology and organization
- Poor communications
- Insufficient information sharing among stakeholders
- Exclusion of stakeholders and delegates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_management