Lessons in Strategy Execution From China : Beijing Olympics 2008

The Beijing Olympics was the most-viewed event in American television history. It was also a watershed event in Chinese history.There were other significant milestones achieved during the event. It was the largest construction projects ever in China since the construction of the fabulous Great Wall of China . The Chinese Olympic Team also achieved a domination over US, with China winning 51 gold medals while the US won 36 gold medals.

It was truly a big China "coming out" party. And what a party it was! International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogue said "Thank you to the people of China. ..... these were truly exceptional games".


Beijing Olympics was a case of triumphant strategy execution, an excellent case study of how a strategy should be executed.

All Strategy Execution Projects begin with a Big Dream

For the Chinese, the Beijing Olympics were not about making serious money.

It was about re-energizing the nation, rallying one of the oldest civilization around a cherished cause : earning international respect and admiration for China. As Chinese economy galloped at double digit growth and its cities transformed into international metropolis, China still coveted for international recognition as a Great Power. A great power capable of destroying anyone who offends the powerful Han regardless of the distance.

That dream that had gone sour when some Westerners called a proud and an ancient civilization -the sick man of Asia. Beating the west at its own game definitely has a lot of meaning for Chinese people. It was Chinese way of sweet revenge, of getting back to the west .Play western sports and beat the west fair and square.

Strategy Execution Begins with a Robust Planning Exercise done by an Empowered Steering Committee

Having studied the earlier Olympic Games, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games (BOCOG) outlined in detail the vast resources and requirements that were essential to create an infrastructure that could support such a massive sporting event. They carefully researched what worked and what did not with the Olympics, especially the Olympics at Sydney & Atlanta.

To integrate the activities of key central government ministries, the Beijing Municipal Government, and BOCOG, the Chinese government created a high-level steering committee. Creation of a steering committee is essential to successful execution of any strategy since the committee steers the project in the right direction and is empowered to make decisions. The Chinese appointed then-Executive Vice Premier Li Lanqing as the leader. The key driver of the Olympic project, Li Lanqing was empowered to take quick decisions and solicit top leadership support.

Chinese understood the need of having careful coordination among IOC,BOCOG, and Beijing city . The were lessons to be learned from poor coordination at Atlanta games, where the city was not adequately in the loop .BOCOG was staffed therefore staffed adequately with Beijing Municipal Government officials.

Buy-in of the bottom of the pyramid critical to success

Although they may give an impression of being immersed in themselves , the Chinese covet global recognition. The Olympic event stoked Chinese nationalism , and spoke to the very fabric of a proud nation. The Chinese were determined to make the Olympics a big success. Every Chinese was involved and engaged so much so that one may need to go into back of beyond to find a Chinese who did not have an awareness of or interest in the Chinese Olympics. The Olympics rings were everywhere, on the billboards in Beijing, on TV stations, even on mountain goats in the Tibet . So it was no surprise then that there were 100,000 Olympics volunteers, 400,000 city volunteers and a million social volunteers serving the Olympics and Paralympics.

Chinese have a vast human resource, and in its quest for greatness would never run short of an endless base of over a billion Chinese.

Construction of the Olympic City: Of Chinese Ingenuity, Western Design & Breathtaking Execution

To understand the whole process of how the strategy execution, we will understand two specific case-lets where the task was a gigantic one, and how it was executed to plan. We will study the making of "Bird's Nest" and the results of a certain "Project 119".

No stranger to grandiose and mammoth construction feats -the Great Wall, Grand Canal and Three Gorges Dam among them- China's $42 billion Olympic building and infrastructure binge created a massive ( $3 billion) airport terminal and 19 breathtaking Olympic venues.

While a lot is made out of best practices and benchmarking, most transformation teams spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel. This wastes a lot of time and resources. It is often cheaper to buy best practices and world-class experience. It is easier said than done. However the Chinese were objective enough to acknowledge that.

The Chinese are however good at using foreign talent. Most major projects, in the last few years, have been designed by foreigners. Chinese demand innovation. By turning to foreigners the Chinese are buying 30 to 40 years of experience they didn't have.

Chinese stuck to what they knew best. Throughout history, China's leaders have drawn on the ingenuity of China's massive population to realize some of the world's most spectacular construction projects. China's low wage workers gave the foreign architects the freedom to design structures that would be prohibitively expensive to build in a western city .

Foreign architects, on their part, used technology that could be handled by crews working round the clock and at a massive speed. The buildings prefabricated window were snapped together rather than cut on-site, as they would be with more highly trained workers.

This helped the foreigners to complete most Olympic venues in a remarkably short time, often within three to four years.

And what an Olympic city the Chinese created. When the westerners got down to new international airport terminal here they were astounded by the massive architectural feat that greeted them. It was not just the space or the size, not just the infrastructure or the amenities. It was walking into a different world. And the air terminal designed by Norman Foster was just the beginning . Different Olympic venues outdid each other with their scale, the power of imagination and the brilliance of execution . The egg-shaped National Theater, the bird's nest National Stadium , the National Aquatics Center, and Rem Koolhaas' headquarters for the CCTV television authority surpassed many other architectural feats in recent history.

The Olympic city not only created a stunning architectural marvel, it transformed Beijing. It forced Beijing to shed its old skin. Strategy well executed invariably transforms the organization and in so doing, becomes changes the very organism that gives birth to it. Also the sheer scale of transformation , enables the change agents to provide a stimulus for fast-track completion of mega infrastructure projects, often overcoming routine organizational and bureaucratic hurdles.

Project 119 : Of Soviet Systems & Processes, Superb Focus & Great Execution

Like the Construction project , the Chinese approached the task of dominating the Olympics with top-down military style disciplined execution. The Chinese outlined their objectives, planned a program, invested considerable resources , acquired state-of-the-art technology and imported world-class foreign talent.

An estimated $6 million was spent on each medal-winning sportsperson. The Chinese Olympic program successfully copied and adapted the systems and process used by the Soviets. The Chinese handpicked and trained two hundred thousand kids in state-run sports schools. It's the same system the Soviets used to train gold medalists. The systems and processes are tested and robust.

However to give a necessary focus and an emotional appeal to the sporting program, the Chinese branded the project , Project 119 . Launched in 2001, Project 119 was named after the number of gold medals then offered in track and field, swimming and other water-based events like rowing, in which China was traditionally weak.

Unprecedented systemic discipline, high sport budgets, state-of-the-art foreign technology and proven international coaches have all been incorporated into Project 119. Thirty-eight foreign coaches were hired to help train China's teams, often with the explicit understanding that they produce gold-winning athletes. The coaches focused on individual events in lieu of team sports because it is easier and efficient to invest in individual talent rather than build a team.

China won gold medals in 16 of 28 Olympic disciplines, up from 14 four years ago in Athens and 10 at the 2000 Sydney Games. While China targets greater glory in London 2012, Project 119 is not going to end anytime soon as nine-year-old Zhang Huiman is training for the Olympic gold, running 20 miles a day preparing for the games of 2020.

Every organization has its own culture and its own way of being. The Chinese approach to strategy execution will work well in big, top-driven and somewhat hierarchical organizations.

Some organizations tend to be chaotic , democratic and flat. The Chinese top down approach may not work very well there, but principles will remain the same. Get a big dream, create a team and a leader to drive it, communicate and create a buy-in of front-line staff and use robust systems and processes to execute. Do not be afraid of using outside help, brand your projects well, allocate good resources and keep the faith.