Howwe Technologies has conducted a study using its strategic analysis tool, Assessment™, based on 120 interviews with CEOs of medium and large Swedish companies. The study highlights that Swedish companies aim to increase profitability by an average of 121%, but unfortunately, only 25% of strategic initiatives that are meant to achieve these goals are sufficiently defined to achieve the desired results. Inadequate strategy implementation is a critical risk factor for the Swedish business community, and change is necessary.
75% of strategic initiatives that are meant to drive the profitability goals are not sufficiently defined to achieve the desired results. This lack of concrete prioritization, implementation of changes or the introduction of new strategic initiatives often leads companies to lose focus on strategic work and instead focus on operational issues.
To achieve the desired profitability increase outlined in the strategy, defining, prioritizing, and breaking down goals into concrete activities with clear ownership and timelines is crucial. Johan Grönstedt, Chief Product Officer at Howwe Technologies, encourages Swedish business leaders to use digital tools developed to support the execution of the strategy and work more structured, actively, and focused.
The study shows that in times like these, demands on corporate management increase to focus on doing the right things at the right time, which may mean quickly shifting towards increased profitability instead of short-term growth. Strategic initiatives such as digitization, prioritizing sales of high-margin products, prioritized markets or projects have become more critical to achieving increased profitability. This puts extra pressure on the alignment and execution of the initiatives in order to succeed.
The common lack of commitment to strategic initiatives can lead to personnel and cultural challenges within the organization. Therefore, it is crucial to define these initiatives clearly and break them down into specific activities with a timeline and ownership to achieve the desired results. The study also shows that initiatives are often not broken down into the current quarter, resulting in the goals being pushed too far into the future. This tends to deprioritize strategic initiatives in favor of operational work, leading to poor results.
Companies that conduct an Assessment™ gain a clear understanding of their underlying performance capability and documentation of what is required to achieve desired results. Assessment™ proactively supports the process of breaking down strategic initiatives into concrete activities with clear ownership and timelines, increasing the likelihood of achieving goals on time.
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Katarina Bennich
Chief Marketing Officer
katarina.bennich@howwe.io
Howwe Technologies AB (publ) is a Stockholm-based international SaaS company targeting larger organizations. Its SaaS application Howwe® is a proactive tool that helps organizations to execute their strategies better and faster by visualizing, steering, and measuring the business and strategy acceleration in real-time throughout the entire organization. Howwe helps its customers to create provable and measurable financial results.
