Given the common acknowledgement that strategy implementation is the greatest challenge to managers in the 21st century and the greatest reason for strategy failure we decided to focus on strategy implementation. Given the common acknowledgement that strategy implementation is the greatest challenge to managers in the 21st century and the greatest reason for strategy failure we decided to focus on strategy implementation. Rather than promoting the unrealistic idea of strategy as a purely rational and deliberate outcome, this book acknowledges and explores the idea that strategy is often emergent, messy and experimental. We focus on strategy as something that people do rather than something that an organisation possesses. Since people are the building blocks of strategy, we recognise the fact that strategy is both a cognitive and a political activity.