Bridging the gap between formulation and realization of the organization’s strategy

The creation of a strategy contributes to the achievement of an organization’s aim. However, often little attention is paid to a strategy’s implementation. This research focusses on the gap between formulation and realization of an organizations strategy. The main objective of this research is to develop an implementation model for the environmental strategy of Arcadis Europe. First, a literature review was performed to investigate the strategy development process, its relation with the organization’s structure and factors which influence strategy implementation. Several in-depth interviews were conducted in order to gain organization-specific insights into behaviors and communication around the current implementation process. With the use of a survey, preferences from stakeholders were assessed. The results of the survey showed that communication regarding the strategy is preferred via the direct manager and once every quartile. In addition, the need for a measurement standards was raised. The factor with the biggest impact on strategy implementation is motivation, both of employees and managers. In order to include results within the implementation model, these results were transformed into activities. Motivation of employees is reached by involving the affected stakeholders in decision making. All the activities are included in the RACI-model. This model shows the connection between the stakeholders and activities and the corresponding level of responsibility. The BPMN model provides a schematic overview of the implementation process. The relationship between stakeholders, activities and corresponding documents are included in this model. The combination of these two models contributes to efficient implementation of the strategy.