Strategy according to Percy Barnevik, Chairman of ABB, is 10 per cent vision and 90 per cent execution. Yet standard textbooks of strategic management are decidedly light in terms of their treatment of the organizational issues which frequently derail change initiatives. Managing Strategy Implementation collects the insights of leading practitioners and academics experienced in executive education in a volume that explicitly examines the organizational issues. The book is divided into four sections, dealing respectively with new models of the process of strategy implementation, key roles in the strategic change process, and success factors in strategy implementation. Topics include the narrative of strategic change, management of uncertainty, the role and utlity of consultants as well as emotional intelligence, the leadership of learning, the role of teams in implementation and the public sector context. A detailed treatment of the emotional world of implementation is given which includes consideration of the stress issues involved, plus a detailed treatment of the middle manager as both architect and potential saboteur of change. The final section focuses on practice and the enablers of successful strategy implementation.

Patrick C. Flood is Professor of Organizational Behavior and University Fellow at the University of Limerick. His previous books include Managing without Traditional Methods (1996), The EU and the Employment Relationship (1997), and Personnel Management in Ireland (1990). He is on the editorial board of Business Strategy Review and the Journal of Irish Business and Administrative Research.

Tony Dromgoole is Director of Open Programmes, Awards and Research Programmes at the Irish Management Institute. He is a part-time member of the School of Business Studies, Trinity College, Dublin. He has published articles on a wide range of management topics and is currently editing, with P. Coughlan, a special edition of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.

Stephen J. Carroll is Professor at the University of Maryland. He is the author or co-author of more than 12 books and over 100 published papers. He has been a consultant to more than 40 business and government organizations. He has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society.

Liam Gorman is a Programme Director at the Irish Management Institute and Lecturer in Business Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. He has published six books on management topics, including one on the Management of Irish Business, and has published articles on a wide range of management topics. He has been a consultant to OECD on the future of management development and has worked in twenty countries on executive education and consulting assignments. He is a Fellow of the Irish Management Institute and has been conferred with a Special Award of Merit by the Irish Psychological Society for his outstanding contributions.