Given that over half of all strategic initiatives fail, the authors want to know who among the management cadre bears the main responsibility.

Using an established database of 55 initiatives in 14 varied UK organisations, which are tracked from decision making through to implementation phases, they give detailed attention to which of 14 functional interests are most often involved, and are most influential, at each phase. This leads to a categorisation of interests as core or peripheral in terms of their involvement, and as heavyweights or lightweights in terms of their influence.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some interests – the CEO, production or service delivery, and marketing – are core, strongly involved and highly influential at both stages. Others – finance and suppliers – are often involved, but their influence declines as decision making gives way to implementation. Among the peripherally involved group, R&D remains weighty, while the influence of shareholders and purchasing wanes as the initiative progresses from decision to implementation, and that of liaison and competitor interests waxes.

The authors note how success depends upon there being adequate relevant experience and good receptivity in the organisation, and how the core heavyweights have the major responsibility to ensure the right experience is available to make the decision, and that the vision behind the decision is successfully translated and communicated among the workforce to ease its implementation.

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