How to implement global vision, mission and strategy into a Norwegian company

Abstract

In this thesis the main purpose has been to study “how to implement global vision, mission and strategy into a Norwegian company”, by looking at how Halliburton Scandinavia develops strategies, how the learning culture is and by looking at the biggest weaknesses and challenges they have with strategy implementation. This will make the organization realize where they have room for improvement, and how they can more effectively implement strategies in the future. This will be a crucial factor for an organization to gain competitive advantage and superior organizational performance, especially in the critical times the oil & gas industry are facing.

20 qualitative semi-structured interviews, from the different organizational levels of strategy in the organization, have been used to gain the required data. The gathered data are compared and analyzed with the theories of Mintzberg and Waters (1985) about deliberate and emergent strategies, Argyris and Schön (1978) about organizational learning, and literature review of Li, Guohui and Eppler (2008), and the 9 most common single factors that affect strategy implementation.

The results are that Halliburton Scandinavia uses a partly deliberate and partly emergent approach when developing strategies (umbrella/process strategy). They have organizational learning, and mostly use single-loop learning when solving problems. This way of learning affects the development of strategies by making them more emergent. The biggest weaknesses of Halliburton Scandinavia that affect how strategies are being implemented are communication of strategy, cascade of strategy, lack of people feeling commitment/ownership to strategy and relationships between PSLs/departments.

Based on the results of this thesis Halliburton Scandinavia should arrange own “strategic meetings” where everyone is included. This would aid the vertical communication aspect and maybe even make some employees feel commitment and ownership to the strategy. There should be arranged “strategic meetings” where people can be included in pulling down the global vision, mission and strategy to break them into smaller pieces, and work packages, such that they can see the big picture. Lastly, there could be cross PSL/department meetings where employees share experiences with each other about strategy making and/or implementation, because some PSLs/departments are better with strategy than others.

The effects of learning culture on strategy development, and the effects of “strategic meetings” on the performance of strategy implementation, would be interesting to research in the future to build upon the work of this thesis.