I teach strategy to business students. Strategy can be a difficult concept to describe succinctly. Recently discovered this video from Strategy& below. It’s short and good – plan to use it in the classroom. Covers many of the key tenants of business strategy: 1) know what you are good at 2) create a system of activities which allow you to win 3) make your strategy – don’t chase the competition 4) close the strategy / execution gap.
PWC words in blue. Eager to hear your thoughts. Does this resonate? What did they miss?
The worlds biggest losers: 80% of value destruction came from bad strategy decisions.
You have to find a way to differentiate – that’s not easy.
A lot of companies are chasing growth across the board, let a thousand flower bloom, and guess what? They are left with a field of weeds to clean up.
60% of 4,000 top executives have no confidence in their strategy.
Who are we going to be? what makes us great today? What do you do better than anyone else?
Make the strategy. . . Few differentiated capabilities that are driving their advantage and applying them to everything they do. That’s the choice that you
The very big question in strategy is WHO ARE WE GOING TO BE? What few things are we going to do better than anyone else to bring the value proposition, products and services to the market.
Knowing the barriers to strategy execution is a critical factor to the success of an organization, in addition to the ability to make sound decisions. The culture factor truly is a determinant of whether the strategy will be carried out and is a huge barrier.
People write about the strategy execution gap all the time, and I completely agree. It requires the head, heart, and the hand. Also, culture trumps strategy for that reason. Anyone can come up with a good idea – here and there – but whats the ability, willingness, sacrifice, and leadership to convert that into a 2-3 year implementation. So true.
The information shared in the video is good to know; thank you for posting it. It was also disappointing, but not surprising. I have heard similar from CEOs regarding their true views of their strategy.
However, I was also disappointed by the advice given, their proposed solution. “WHO ARE WE GOING TO BE?” Such 1990’s thinking. Advocating more inside-out strategies is not the answer, it is perpetuating the problem.
We are teaching business leaders and management consultants how to develop Outside In goals and objectives, which includes an Outside In redefinition of Vision, Mission, Current Strategy and Relative Customer Value.
The exercise of mapping a traditional inside out strategy to an Inside Out format reveals the holes in the client/consultant thinking and one or more root causes why the strategy is not performing at 100%.
See Prof. George S. Day, Wharton, Strategy from the Inside Out.
Regards,
Michael
Thank you for the clarity of your reply and point of view. Great 8 min video of Professor Day here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0Vkm5viBU&feature=youtu.be
Will be good to use this Outside-in vs. Inside-out, as a basis for discussion, debate in future blog post.
Not sure Cesare Mainardi is the right person to talk about this. He destroyed a 100 year old consulting firm. Was the first to leave the ship. He shouldn’t be allowed to talk about strategy anywhere.
Fascinating. Don’t much about it him, but just looked at Linkedin. Okay, I know what you are saying. Keep going, can’t fix other people. Have a good 2018.
One of the best frameworks I have seen for corporate strategy is based on the principles of competitive advantage. It is from McKinsey most notably (Kevin Coyne). All 3 elements are required to build a market leading corporate strategy.
1) Value proposition: providing something of value to customers
2) Scarcity: e.g. scarce resources, ‘privileged, tradeable assets’ or distinctive capabilities
3) Asymmetry: positional advantage in structurally attractive markets e.g. you may have a unique cost advantage relative to competitors
Thanks for reading. Totally makes sense. Valuable, rare, and better than the competition. Winning.