Assessing strategy execution at a company in the South African film and television industry

Abstract

The research conducted for this study is an assessment of strategy execution at a company in the South African film and television industry. It focuses on four factors identified from the literature as having an impact on strategy execution at businesses in general, namely: • the availability or lack of resources • planning for operationalising strategy • communication across and through the organisation in every direction • the adaptability of strategy. The factor of alignment is also assessed as it was mentioned by many of the respondents with great frequency. In addition, results are presented regarding the perceptions of respondents about the nature of competition in the South African film and TV industry. The research was conducted using in-depth interviews in a qualitative study of Multichoice South Africa. The results that are presented for each of the factors show that all or the majority of respondents perceive that the factor being assessed impacts on strategy execution. However, there are many different views as to how implementation planning, communication, alignment and the adaptability of strategy are managed or how the organisation studied is affected by each of these factors. Some respondents perceive some of these factors to be better managed than others and attribute some of them a higher level of importance than others. With respect to resources the majority of respondents agree that a lack of resources impacts negatively on strategy execution at the organisation studied. A lack of qualified or industry-experienced people in particular is perceived as having the most impact.