Strategy implementation, the fourth step of the strategic management process, involves putting formulated strategies into action.³⁰ Without successful implementation, valuable strategies developed by managers are virtually worthless.³¹

The successful implementation of strategy requires four basic skills:³²

1. Interacting skill is the ability to manage people during implementation. Managers who are able to understand the fears and frustrations others feel during the implementation of a new strategy tend to be the best implementers. These managers empathize with organization members and bargain for the best way to put a strategy into action.

2. Allocating skill is the ability to provide the organizational resources necessary to implement a strategy. Successful implementers are talented at scheduling jobs, budgeting time and money, and allocating other resources that are critical for implementation.

3. Monitoring skill is the ability to use information to determine whether a problem has arisen that is blocking strategy implementation. Good strategy implementers set up feedback systems that continually tell them about the status of strategy implementation.

4. Organizing skill is the ability to create throughout the organization a network of people who can help solve implementation problems as they occur. Good implementers customize this network to include individuals who can handle the special types of problems anticipated in the implementation of a particular strategy.

Overall, then, the successful implementation of a strategy requires handling people appropriately, allocating the resources necessary for implementation, monitoring implementation progress, and solving implementation problems as they occur. Perhaps the most important requirements are knowing which people can solve specific implementation problems and being able to involve them when those problems arise.