In the context of organizational strategy planning, the responsibility for the strategy plan ultimately falls on the CEO. The CEO is accountable for the entire organization and, therefore, the execution of the strategy. This aligns with the RAPID decision-making framework, where the CEO is the "D" or the decision maker on the strategy, and therefore accountable for its outcome.
The CEO's role in the strategy planning process is to be the sponsor of the overall strategic planning process, involving:
- Setting the concrete, guiding outcomes that the organization needs to achieve (together with the Board)
- Pulling in internal and external data points, trends, best practices, and more to build a picture of where opportunities may lie (together with the executive leadership team and strategic planning facilitators)
- Adapting and building buy-in for the prioritized multi-year strategic opportunities
- Communicating strategy effectively to all stakeholders
- Holding the entire organization accountable for the execution of the strategy (recursively)
In summary, while many parties are involved in creating a strategy, the CEO is ultimately responsible for the entire organization and, therefore, the strategy execution, and is accountable to the Board. This aligns with the RAPID decision-making framework, where the CEO is the decision maker.
