Has Strategy Lost Her Way?

The word ‘strategy’ has been bandied about so much the last 3 three decades, that it has become whatever we want it to be! It often means different things to different people even within the same group. This dysfunctional grasp of strategy and consequently the steps taken to operationalize it, sometimes pits one group against another, leading to less than optimal outcomes for the business as a whole. While this blog can in no way claim to address this, what it hopes to do is to give some pointers that can then be potential points to ponder for the thoughtful executive.

The leaders of a company must have a vision of the future that they expect to be a part of. As with any future, it is dynamic and as such, strategy can never be static. But unfortunately, that is exactly what tends to happen when strategy is budget driven, as is the case at most businesses. While the playing field may be defined at any point in time, it is constantly changing and with it also the competitive advantage a business may have. So, a business must adapt and manage an evolving pipeline of initiatives, constantly experimenting, iterating and learning, without necessarily staking out a position and then trying to defend it. As such, since strategy is a constant stream of decisions and actions based upon the vision of the future combined with responses to feedback from the field, the human foundation upon which a business stands is critical to its success.

This leads to at least 5 questions to ask when plotting strategy:

1. What is your Company’s vision? In other words, what does the future look like.

2. Where will you play and what forces are driving your industry? Choose not to be everything to everybody.

3. How do you plan to win? In other words, identify your sustainable competitive strengths

4. What capabilities must be in place to execute your strategy? Or, the organizational strengths and skill sets needed to succeed. The human foundation of business plays a deciding role here.

5. What is the culture required to execute the strategy? Depending upon the industry, this may be anywhere ranging from the very entrepreneurial to the highly regimented but, whichever it is, must be based on mutual trust and respect.

In a future blog, we will explore some questions about how strategy, when misused, can sometimes act as a pair of ‘blinders’ –and take a company down the path to oblivion.

www.aumprocess.com