I have been in strategy for nearly three years now and it is the most interesting business area I have worked in. It has tested me more than any other role and still three years on I am learning things daily. ‘STRATEGY’ is however the most misused word I can recall, except maybe the word ‘Literally’ but let’s keep that one for another day.
What Strategy is not – It is not an ambition, it is not leadership, it is not a planning a roadmap. Most simply strategy is discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focussing actions to deal with those factors. If you are being strategic you acknowledge the barriers and challenges if you don’t do this then all you have is plan or a forecast and not a strategy.
One of the challenges of being a leader is mastering this shift from having others define your goals to being the architect of the organization’s purposes and objectives.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, RICHARD Rumelt.
A good strategy is as much about saying no as saying yes, in fact if you are not clear on what your organisation must not do as what it does then you are again creating a plan more that a strategy. If you are being strategic you are looking to achieve desirable ends with available means.
Ask yourself 5 Big Questions to be more strategic
- Where are we?
- What do we want?
- What to change?
- How to change?
- How to measure?
Sea's The Day 