Against a backdrop of constantly changing markets, competitive pressures, regulations, and technologies, today's CEO is expected to produce transformational results in shorter and shorter periods of time. Not surprisingly, executive frustrations are rising and their tenures are shortening.

Today's CEO has very little time--from three to five quarters following appointment--to deliver on the promise of his or her vision for the enterprise. Unfortunately, the successful execution of new strategies is the Achilles' heel of most leaders. Even well-conceived strategies often fail to produce expected results. As confirmed by global consulting firms, over 70% of management initiatives, reorganizations, mergers, and acquisitions fail to achieve their intended value creation objectives. Once disappointed, investors and directors are rarely forgiving.

Given such high stakes and limited tolerance for error, CEOs must be certain they have addressed the primary concerns:

1. Do we have the right strategy?
2. Do we have the right people?
3. Have we designed the organization to achieve extraordinary results from our people?
4. Have we made our strategy actionable by appropriately translating strategic intent into appropriate business initiatives?
5. Have we addressed all the requirements of successful execution of our initiatives?

Over the last 75 years, a great deal of thought and energy has been expended in developing approaches to informing the first three make-or-break questions which a CEO must answer. Unfortunately, over the same period of time very little attention has been paid to developing an understanding of the requirements for successful execution embedded in the last two questions. Strategies, senior executives, the design of the organization and the specific business initiatives can only be selected at the top of an organization but must be executed from the perimeter or the bottom of the organization and migrate all the way up to the top of the organization. Without an ability to lead execution through to a successful conclusion, most CEOs find themselves in the all-too-familiar--and dangerous--territory of promises exceeding performance.

Drawing upon years of experience in executive leadership and data collected from over 300,000 individuals in over 300 operating units, ranging from financial and service industries to manufacturing, from groups of a few hundred to many thousands, from senior executives to line workers, Genesys Solutions has identified the conditions which are necessary for effective execution and the management actions which are required to lead specific initiatives through to successful conclusions.