Poor implementation a problem for CEOs

As many as 20 per cent of chief executive officers (CEO) of top 200 Fortune companies get sacked every year. Not because, their strategies are poor, but because of poor implementation of strategies which fail to yield results.

Addressing a seminar on 'Management of human resources and business strategy in a globalised economy', organised by the Merchants Chamber of Commerce, Ranjan Das of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta said people at top levels were being evicted from jobs and that the trend was also beginning to show up in India specially among large private organisations.

Das also said that failure to implement strategies will lead to competitors initially taking away good clients, followed by the best talent in the company and eventually the assets.

He also said that it was high time implementation of strategies be taught at management schools as a subject. One of the prime reasons for failure to implement strategies were lack of any idea on how to implement one.

Das also said that in most Indian companies the top five people should not have crossed the level of DGM "" given their skill level. He stressed on the right man being engaged for the right job "" which otherwise would have devastating effect on the health of a company.

There were different categories of people among performers. Well behaved target achievers were the best, according to Das. Badly behaved but achievers were dangerous and should immediately be shown the door.

Performance appraisal system of all companies should try and find out the second category of employees.

Talking on manning of key positions, he said placement of people at key jobs were in many cases politically motivated.