Top Government officials should focus on execution and moving public sector from good to great

I want to recommend two books to the appointed high ranking government officials – the first one is titled “Execution, the discipline of getting things done”, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, who were former CEO’s and renowned author respectively. The book notes that execution is the most unaddressed issue in corporates and other organizations, and that the absence of good project and strategy execution is the single most hindrance to organizational success. The absence of good execution strategies causes disappointment of the citizenry and also the appointing authorities because what has been agreed upon or promised, as exemplified by the various campaign manifestoes are not achieved and such disappointments are wrongly attributed to other things and factors, but the main cause of such failure is lack of a coherent execution strategy for achieving organizational mandate. Strategic plans, high level strategy, too much emphasis on intellectual discourse and philosophical standpoints are not enough to transform the public sector, but what all the top officials need to emphasis is the discipline and concept of execution and implementation. Execution according to the book has been defined as “a set of behaviours and techniques that organizations and their leaders need to master in order to achieve competitive advantage”, and such mastering for success requires that organizations place a high premium on strategies to get what is required to execute the agreed plans, and this includes existence of the right resources and the right people in the right positions. The book notes that strategies fail because they are not executed well, and that things that are supposed to happen don’t happen and as such, resources and time are wasted, and citizens don’t get value for their money.   

The second book is by Jim Collins titled “Good to Great”, and it begins with a statement “good is the enemy of great”. The top leaders will be moving into organizations and a country that has made some good progress on some indicators, but there is need to move to the greatest ever achievements for the country to pull many from poverty. Many leaders don’t become great because it is so easy to settle on good leadership and not great leadership. Great leaders have to be motivated by curiosity and desire to change organizations to greatness Dr. Mutegi Giti, Urban Manager, Nairobi.