Execution: The Power Behind Enduring Strategy

Eric Viardot ()
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Eric Viardot: Skema Business School, Skema Executive Education

Chapter 13 in The Timeless Principles of Successful Business Strategy, 2026, pp 149-160 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Execution is the defining trait that transforms strategic intent into sustained performance. Enduring firms treat implementation as a living discipline, anchored in robust systems and guided by simplicity, humility, and accountability. They favor disciplined autonomy, empowering field-level decision-making while maintaining strategic coherence. Control is achieved not through rigid planning but via performance indicators and cultural norms, echoing the self-regulating dynamics of the human body. These firms cultivate continuous learning through rigorous training and experiential insight, embedding resilience deep within their organizational fabric. Simplicity is a strategic asset: enduring companies streamline structures, prune product portfolios, and focus on clear priorities to avoid dispersion and complexity. Hierarchical frugality, with limited layers of management, accelerates decisions and fosters ownership. Operational design balances outsourcing and vertical integration, preserving critical know-how while leveraging external capabilities. Executional humility emerges as a cultural antidote to complacency, reinforcing the idea that enduring success depends not only on doing the right things but doing them right.

Keywords: Enduring firms; Strategy execution; Disciplined autonomy; Accountable control; Continuous learning; Efficient simplicity; Hierarchical frugality; Operational design; Executional humility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:mgmchp:978-3-032-14617-5_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-14617-5_13

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