The Main Challenges in a Country’s Strategy Planning And Implementation

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I. The Lack of Political Commitment

A great challenge to strategy planning and implementation in the developing states is the commitment of political leaders to development planning. The required commitment is not only expressing verbal aspects and likely remedies to the problems and matters involved but voicing backed by effective action plan. In this respect it is noted that in many countries of the continent political leaders accord other matters higher priority than they do to development planning. While it is recognized such priority settings are dependent on the socio-economic and political stage of development of various countries, it must be recognized that the relegation of development to a subordinate place in the scale of values of a country’s political leaders cannot help but depress development efforts and, hence, the results of development planning, while also sowing the seeds of discontent and potential social unrest.

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The strategy planning and implementation is focused at causing a positive advancement in the development of the people and the country.

Thus, an example of the importance of political commitment to development is underscored in the Millennium Development Goals. A careful reading of these goals exposes the base on a broad definition of development as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.

The specific tenets that have immediate policy relevance are identified to include political freedoms, embracing the political entitlements associated with democracies in the broadest sense; economic facilities, in the sense of the opportunities that individuals respectively enjoy to utilize economic resources for the purpose of consumption, or production, or exchange; social opportunities in the sense of the arrangements that society makes for education and health care; transparency guarantees in the sense of the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity; and, protective security in the sense of the provision of a social safety net for preventing the vulnerable sections of society from being reduced to abject misery, and in some cases even starvation and death.

This therefore shows the extent to which the realization of great aspect of development depends upon the political leadership. Consequently, the political leadership carries a lot of influence when it comes to the strategic planning in the developing countries. Thus, lack of commitment by the political leaders in developing and implementing the strategy plans becomes a great challenge.

II. Institutional Structure Challenge

African countries and most of the developing countries inherited an institutional structure that was largely designed to perform minimalist functions of modern states relating to provision of public goods and services, tax collection and observance of law and order.

Though, the development of strategic plans geared at bettering the provision of the goods and services and extensively the concept of self-governance, new and unfamiliar entrepreneurial and managerial tasks on an unprecedented scale come up. Few countries can cope with the administrative problems which development planning brings. These problems are so complex that in most less developed countries the limitation in implementing plans is not financial resources, but administrative capacity.

The administrative and management capacity of the developing countries, weak as it may have been at the time of independence, has been further worsened over time. It is the justification for the numerous workshops, training and benchmarking from the experts all over the countries in an attempt to find the right footing through the new strategies and plans developed. While these initiatives are commendable, they need to be carefully assessed from the perspective of enhancing domestic capacity compared to substituting it by foreign expertise.

Evidently, it was noted that sub-Saharan Africa had about 100,000 foreign technical assistance staff costing about 4 billion USD per annum. In most cases, this staff substitutes for local capacity, but all current assessments of the impacts of this on SSA development are ostensibly negative.

III. Lack of appropriate skills and competencies

According to Daft (2005) implementing approaches need a proper detection skill gap and bringing those respective dexterities into the organization. These propagate the need for organizations to have a skilled and experienced workforce which can note and find the needed skills in cases of a deficiency. Moreover, Paterman (2008) opines that a mixture of fresh recruits, introduction of proper training, development, and coaching can be useful for the implementation of strategic plans.

In the recent years, organizations have put their resources into developing tactical planning skills but success rate is only 10% to 30%. Human asset is essential in strategy implementation. Organizations that are effective at strategy implementation consider the human asset factor in getting procedures going. Further, they understand that the human asset issue is extremely a two sided story. To begin with, thought of HR necessitates that administration consider the organization's correspondence needs. That they articulate the strategies so that those charged with developing the corresponding action steps (tactics) fully understand the strategy they are to implement.

Second, managers fruitful at execution know about the impacts each new strategy will have on their human asset needs. They make inquiries with respect to how much change the system calls for. Additionally, they make inquiries about how rapidly the association must accommodate that change. Besides, they get some information about the human asset ramifications of the responses to previously mentioned questions. In answering these questions, management will decide whether to allow time for employees to grow through experience, to introduce training, or to hire new employees.

Competency can be defined as the standard or quality of the outcome of the person's performance. This according to Rutherford (1995) standard is being the minimum acceptable level of performance. Competency has something other than learning and abilities. This is on the grounds that it includes the capacity to meet complex requests, by drawing on and assembling psychosocial assets, including aptitudes and demeanor's, in a specific setting. On the off chance that an organization must be successful, it needs to guarantee that it has the competent individuals for the task. This is mostly an aftereffect of their judgments, encounters, and since these experiences go far in driving the organization's performance. Without appropriate skills and competencies, whether on the top or in the base of the hierarchical structure, even the best system with the best natural variables will have restricted odds of achievement.

IV. Ineffective strategy implementation methods

Among the early contributors to strategy implementation, majority claimed that about 50% and 80% of the effort that goals into the implementation of a strategy fail. The failure means that possibly the fresh plan was invented but was not implemented or that it was put into practice but due to lack of the right method yielded no results.

Herbiniak (2006) indicates that whereas the strategy development is hard, to make the strategy work and execute it are more challenging. It is imperative for organizations to employ the appropriate method to make the strategy work or they risk failing altogether. From a research done by Charan & Colvin (1999) shows that about 70% of 10 CEOs end up not succeeding not due to their bad strategies, but because of their bad implementation strategies.

V. Poor communication

This aspect of communication covers both the content of the strategy and the manner in which information reaches the intended personnel. It is difficult to execute procedure when the technique and strategy itself isn't surely understood. Ineffectively imparting methodology to representatives has a solid effect to methodology execution. Further, they affirmed that an effectively thought out system imparted to the association squares with a top notch procedure. The learning of the technique and understanding it are two distinctive ideas. Thus, employees and the management are advised to learn the strategy and understand it to enhance the effective implementation.

Other research examines have likewise uncovered that under 5 percent of the employees basically comprehend their organization's strategy. Also, Hrebiniak (2005) has expressed that in numerous organizations he contemplated, workers regularly didn't know about their company’s strategy. Obviously if all workers can't comprehend the technique and their parts in it, effective strategy execution is very far-fetched.

According to Raps (2005), one reason why system execution forms often prompts exceptionally difficult and complex issues or even fall flat, is the unclearness of the task of duties. Michlitsch (2000) declares the requirement for individuals to know plainly what they should do if the organization needs to succeed. Likewise, workers must be given clear direction to empower them effectively in executing the strategy.

Moreover, in executing a strategy, communication has to be passed down from the top management to the bottom of the chain of command thereby demanding a clearly spelt out procedure. In case of a communication breakdown, the strategy would not be effectively implemented.

VI. Lack of employee empowerment

Employee empowering and strengthening revolves around giving workers the resources, authority and skills to perform their duties and responsibilities. Further, Pearce and Robinson (2007) define empowerment as the act of allowing an individual or team the right and flexibility to make decisions and initiate action. In a similar respect, Lincoln, Travers, Ackers and Wilkinson (2012) see empowerment as the utilization of specific procedures to change those without power into fair position. In such manner, the idea of empowerment is the act of giving employees the expert to settle on choices that improve the procedures as seen by the worker without referring to top management. Employees who are competent know about the strategy and their part in it but can't take an interest in its execution without being empowered to do as so.

Employee empowerment and strengthening has exceptionally solid association with employee's capacity to execute technique. The powers and abilities of workers can't be completely used without such employees being engaged. It is known that execution of decisions take too long to be in any way executed. In that capacity, when choices take too long to be in any way executed it is an indication of absence of proper empowerment since employees don't have the ability to settle on their own choices and subsequently they have to wait until the point when the rather busy administration makes them. Employee empowerment is along these lines fundamental to strategy implementation since choices about specific issues are better left to individuals directly working and in charge of them.

In the absence of employee empowerment, strategies cannot be effectively executed and implemented due to delayed decision making by the employees who are not empowered to do so but to wait upon their bosses.

VII. Insufficient Leadership

Ineffective leadership is a test to the fruitful methodology execution. This is particularly in developing countries where greater parts of the organizations need successful initiative. Mintzberg (2010), emphasizes that management and leadership are two unique things which are both required for better strategy execution. He presses further that people are worn exhausted over managers who are not leaders and leaders who are not managers. Contemporary administration thinking proposes that managers do things right, while leaders do the correct things. He contended that managers join human and different assets to accomplish objectives, while leaders take care of issues creatively.

A solid feeling of objectivity is typically the observance of genuine administration thus it assumes an essential part in saddling the imaginative energies of the considerable number of individuals in the business Schultz et al. (2013). An uncommon administration is a key fixing to rolling out key improvement successful and enduring. As indicated by Daft one of the tremendous test confronting pioneers today is the changing business condition which requests a worldview of administration to develop to another mentality that depends on human abilities, respectability and collaboration. Schultz, et al. (2013) additionally express that the preferred standpoint and good estimation of a big-hearted way to deal with treating different representatives particularly the lower echelons as people and regarding human respect in the entirety of its structures, research and perceptions demonstrate that very much roused workers are more beneficial and inventive.

Megginson, et al. (2006), express that there exists a distinction amongst administration and authority According to them driving is a fundamental piece of overseeing, however not the entire of it. Therefore it is the inborn capacity of one individual to impact others to endeavor to achieve objectives or targets. Administration, while requiring the utilization of initiative, likewise incorporates alternate elements of arranging, sorting out, staffing and controlling. Rather than simply sitting back or rather basically responding to the adjustments in the business condition, it is fundamental for key leaders to inspect past occasions and make a move in order to envision what these might mean for what is to come.

Harrison (2013) shows that executive official administration significantly affects the systems and execution of their organizations. This is likewise the case for great initiative which additionally has a huge positive impact. The impact of authority can take both positive and negative consequences. It consequently means that poor administration can have a great negative impact and cause disorganization among workers.

VIII. Lack of proper financial management

Absence of appropriate financial management system is considered as a key setback to strategy implementation. The utilization of performance based targets has caused an expanded cost cognizance. Organizations need to create cost-bookkeeping frameworks and give yearly money related articulations. The data given enhances the company's ability to control the organizations' financial and money related practices. With performance management the point of view toward better budgeting, in light of expanded information of accurate expenses, is practical. Repeatedly, exchanges are amended based on accomplished execution results with the end goal that an inability to meet execution targets results in a lessening of budgetary exchange to organization. Then again, there is a positive financial income to the organization on the off chance that execution results surpass set targets. These positive amendments are dependent, though, on improvements of the general budgetary position of the organization are therefore constrained.

These comments lessen the correct effect of the financial plan as a motivator. There is additionally a need to upgrade the execution introduction of the distinctive monetary administration instruments -spending plans, records and reviews and the coherency and consistency of these instruments. More lucidness and consistency would imply that financial plan; accounts reviews depend on a similar yield and cost classes. Most organizations with contracts create gathering and cost bookkeeping however neglect to utilize the subsequent cost data in their spending gauges. Consistence reviews stay more critical than execution reviews.

Moreover, accounts of misspending and allocations cause a great setback in the implementation of strategies. Resources and finances allocated towards the undertaking of a given project with clearly defined expenditures end up not executed due to misallocation of the funds.

Managers should adopt a clear accountability method to ensure that the funds and resources are spent towards the planned activities in order to realize the intended goals.