Implementing Strategy: Leading Effective Execution

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Dates Location Tuition
Sep 22, 2008 - Sep 26, 2008 Philadelphia $8,950
Apr 27, 2009 - May 1, 2009 Philadelphia $8,950

The devil is in the details. Even a great strategic plan can be destroyed by poor implementation. Successful implementation requires an understanding of the “big picture,” as well as all the sequential steps that lead to it.

Implementing Strategy gives you a broad view of implementation and a thorough understanding of each piece of the implementation process so you can make more informed decisions on efficiency and effectiveness. You will learn how to properly align corporate structure with corporate strategies and how to integrate strategy formulation and implementation by focusing on five core areas:

  1. Strategy Implementation Model: Equip your organization to adapt to change by developing a model of appropriate structures, objectives, controls, integration mechanisms, and incentives for implementing your strategy.
  2. Strategic Change: Understand the stages of implementation, forces for and against change, and ways to overcome resistance to change; and develop structures and tactics to implement change.
  3. Human Resources and Strategy Implementation: Integrate HR policies with strategy implementation needs.
  4. Strategy and Structure: Understand how strategy affects structure and how the choice of structure affects efficiency and effectiveness.
  5. Incentives and Controls: Discuss ways to motivate and control performance, including methods to achieve effective coordination.

You will gain a framework in which to effectively develop and execute your next strategic plan. With this wider overview of strategy, you will be better prepared to ask the right questions as you build and implement future strategies.

Tuition for Philadelphia programs includes lodging and meals. Prices are subject to change. Program Consultants are available to provide more information on course specifics and discuss how this program might meet your needs. Please contact them by telephone at +1.215.898.1776 or by e-mail.


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We focus on looking ahead by using real-time case studies with current strategy implementation techniques. You will get a broad perspective of overall strategy formulation and implementation. You will develop clear, measurable incentives and tie them directly to strategic performance. Very few MBA courses address cross-functional issues related to implementation or the framework for thinking about implementation; this course is designed to fill that gap. Faculty will also be available to give feedback on a business plan you bring.

Session topics for the Implementing Strategy: Leading Effective Execution Program

  • A Model of Strategy Implementation
  • Managing Strategic Change
  • Strategy and Organizational Structure
  • Integrating Short- and Long-Term Operating Objectives
  • Managing Human Resources
  • Developing Effective Incentives and Controls
  • Implementing Diversification Strategies

About the Book

UPENN-10495_Wharton_CommonSpot_Development_1Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change

Formulating strategy is one thing. Executing it throughout the entire organization... well, that's the really hard part. Without effective execution, no business strategy can succeed. Unfortunately, most managers know far more about developing strategy than about executing it — and overcoming the difficult political and organizational obstacles that stand in their way. In this book, Wharton Professor Larry Hrebiniak offers a comprehensive, disciplined process model for making strategy work in the real world. Hrebiniak shows why execution is even more important than many senior executives realize and sheds powerful new light on why businesses fail to deliver on even their most promising strategies.

Download the introduction and chapter one.

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Program Logistics

Program does not officially begin until Monday morning, but hotel accommodations will be provided on Sunday evening. Program will conclude with lunch on Friday.

Even managers with MBAs and many years of experience in formulating strategy can learn the finer aspects of putting strategy into action. Anyone moving into a position that will require strategic planning will also have the opportunity to consider the whole process of developing and implementing strategy.

We encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to leverage the application and value of the program. Additional group benefits are available when four or more participants attend a program.

Gain a framework in which to effectively develop and execute your next strategic plan. Integrate your strategy and implementation processes. Be prepared to ask the right questions as you build and implement future strategies. You will:

  • Ensure that your corporate structure is in alignment with current corporate strategies.
  • Increase your organization’s ability to adapt to change.
  • Manage resistance and conflict and maximize resources.

Lawrence G. Hrebiniak, PhD LAWRENCE G. HREBINIAK, PhD
Academic Director
Associate Professor of Management
The Wharton School

Larry Hrebiniak's courses focus on competitive strategy and strategy implementation. His extensive research has encompassed competitive strategy, the fit between strategy and structure, methods of achieving coordination in geographically dispersed firms, controls in the strategy implementation process, and strategic adaptation as organizations change over time to remain competitive. Larry has consulted with leading companies around the world, including AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chase Manhattan, DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, Isuzu, and Johnson & Johnson. He is the author of Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change (Wharton School Publishing, 2005), Implementing Strategy (New York: MacMillan, 1984) and The We-Force in Management: How To Build and Sustain Cooperation (New York: Lexington Books, 1994).
Peter Cappelli , DPhil  PETER CAPPELLI, DPhil
George W. Taylor Professor of Management
Director, Center for Human Resources
The Wharton School

Peter Cappelli's areas of research are human resource practices and talent and performance management. Dr. Cappelli is the author of The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (Harvard Business School Press, 1999), which describes the challenges associated with managing the new, more mobile workforce. His article "A Market-Driven Approach to Retaining Talent" focuses specifically on the challenges of retaining employees. Dr. Cappelli was recently named one of the 25 most influential people in the field of human capital by Vault.com.
Mario Moussa MARIO MOUSSA, PhD
Principal, CFAR (Center for Applied Research), Inc.
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Care Economics
University of Pennsylvania

Co-author of The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, Mario Moussa directs and teaches programs for hospital leaders and physicians, corporate security managers, and energy and banking executives. He teaches negotiation, influence, strategy, change, and corporate culture and is co-director of Wharton's Essentials of Management program. He is also a principal at CFAR, Inc., a management consulting firm that began as a Wharton research center. A specialist in large-scale organizational change initiatives, he has consulted to many of the world's leading corporations, universities, and foundations, including United Health Group, PNC Bank, the Georgetown University Medical Center, and State Farm Insurance. He has published widely in the field of organizational dynamics, power, and influence.
Mike Useem, PhD MIKE USEEM, PhD
The William and Jacalyn Egan Professor
Professor of Management
The Wharton School

Mike Useem offers courses on management, leadership, and corporate governance to MBA and senior executive audiences in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He has worked extensively on leadership development and governance with many organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He is the author of The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide; Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss So You Both Win; The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All; Investor Capitalism: How Money Managers Are Changing the Face of Corporate America; and Executive Defense: Shareholder Power and Corporate Reorganization. From the slopes of Mount Everest to the battlefields of Gettysburg, Dr. Useem has gone to great lengths to present leadership lessons to executives.

 "Outstanding faculty ... classes took place in a remarkable, relaxed setting. Great colleagues leading to a very significant exchange of experiences."
— Managing Director, Mail Order Music Club

"If more people could do this, my company would be far better off or the business environment would be a lot more competitive."
— Manufacturing Consultant, High-Tech Manufacturer

"I will be better equipped to handle M&A and strategic development programs within my organization."
— Director, Health Organization

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