One word that Dr. Paul Chan has invoked a lot recently is ‘execution’. But believe me, most of us, if asked what ‘execution’ means, will be bollixed and clueless. Simply put. when a company executes well, the company will do well. Therefore, execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing the hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability (Bossidy, Charan & Burck, 2002, p 22).
It is worth remembering that strategies most often fail because they aren’t properly executed. Things that are supposed to happen don’t happen. Either the organizations aren’t capable of making them happen, or the leaders of the business misjudge the challenges their companies face in the business environment, or both (ibid, p 15).
I highly recommend we purchase this book, so that we can learn from it. “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” is the book’s title, and it’s available at all MPH bookstores for only RM84.90. For your info, this book is a New York Times bestseller!
Of late, I have been talking a lot about the UK’s economic crisis. The UK economy contracted 0.8% between April and June, more than double the figure economists had expected, BBC News reported on July 24. The contraction was much less than the 2.4% seen in the first quarter but was still above analysts' 0.3% prediction. This latest figures take the annual rate of decline to 5.6%, the biggest fall since records began in 1955.
Governments everywhere are almost always overly optimistic, and the UK government is no exception. Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, had steadfastly maintained that he was cautious but confident that growth was going to return at the end of the year.
But outside of the government, there are plenty of misgivings.
The BBC's economic editor Stephanie Flanders was already less upbeat. "Anyone who was worried about the momentum of the recovery before will be that much more concerned now," she observed. "Not least, because the recovery has yet to actually show its face”.
Hetal Mehta, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, put it bluntly when she said that hopes for a recovery had run ahead of reality.