In today’s competitive global business environment virtually all firms work diligently to analyze alternatives and to create a business strategy that enables competitive advantage. Once the strategy has been defined however, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement it effectively. Trends such as globalization, increasingly empowered customers, and rapid and accelerating change make closing the gap between strategy and execution more critical than ever. The current difficult economic environment only increases this imperative.

What is the answer? How can management communicate the strategy effectively and assure that the entire organization has bought in to the strategy and is aligned behind it? Business performance optimization systems are an important tool for success.

These tools can fundamentally change our organizations. The role of management is no longer that of "ultimate decision-maker" but that of "translator" and "coach" who initiates the strategy and define the metrics which bring the efforts of each stakeholder into alignment with the strategy as a whole. Good strategy effectively implemented can provide the sustainable competitive advantage that all organizations aspire to.