Obstacles, their relationships and strategy implementation failure

Strategy implementation remains a difficult task with improbable success. This paper provides an explanation on why so many strategy implementation efforts fail. The paper addresses the following questions: What are the obstacles to a successful strategy implementation? Do these obstacles simply accumulate during implementation or do they relate to each other in more damaging ways? and Can an obstacle be the cause leading to, and reinforcing, other obstacles? Based on an extensive review of the literature and on an in-depth case study analysis, this paper draws three main conclusions. The first is that there is little agreement regarding what the real implementation obstacles are. The second is that obstacles interact and can be strongly interrelated in dynamic and complex manners, which add further difficulties to the process of strategy implementation. The third is that obstacles can lead to and cause other obstacles, eventually forming long causality chains of blockages