2018-17 Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution

Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution Moderator: Paul Michelman, Editor in Chief, MIT Sloan Management Review (@pmichelman) Speakers: Anthony Christie, SF ‘98, Chief Operating Officer, Trace3 (@christieontech) Cathy Horst Forsyth, Founder and Managing Partner, Strongbow Consulting Group Mike Macrie, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Land O’Lakes, Inc. (@mwmacrie) Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (#IrvingWB) In most organizations, strategy and execution are managed almost entirely separately. High-level strategy is set by a small group of executives; the implementation of that strategy is then delegated into the hands of a much larger and more heterogeneous group of functional managers and their far-flung teams. What happens? Those words that looked like a sure-fire recipe for success become mutated by the demands of day-to-day operations and the individual agendas of those who lead them. Digital technologies can exacerbate this problem as much as help address it. Is there a better way to develop strategy? Is there a more effective means of connecting strategic priorities to the realities of execution? The members of this panel say emphatically, “yes.”