Coach Express

By Robyn Logan
(Strategy Director)

In a recent article in the Mc Kinsey Quarterly, Richard Rumelt (Professor of Strategy at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management) refers to Steve Jobs as a “strategic entrepreneur”. He quotes Jobs as answering a detailed question about his long term strategy with “I am going to wait for the next big thing.” Interestingly, Jobs didn’t go into a long explanation about competitive positioning or long term vision, he was simply waiting until the right moment for that predatory leap, which for him was Pixar and then, in an even bigger way, the iPod.

According to Rumelt, that very predatory approach of leaping through the window of opportunity and staying focused on those big wins — not on maintenance activities — is what distinguishes a real entrepreneurial strategy.

Rumelt’s article is excellent and it got me thinking about the concept of strategy. As a former Strategic Planner I spent many hours assisting organizations to develop and document their corporate strategy. Very few of these organizations were engaging in what I would call “real strategy. Strategy is a bit like trust, or even love – you know when you have it and you know when you see it, but it’s hard to teach someone else how to do it.

The best place to start with a definition then, might be to start with what strategy is not. Strategy is widely misunderstood, mainly due to the fact that most people’s first encounter with strategy is at one of those time-wasting strategic planning days.

1. Strategy is not target identification, task mapping, resource allocation or scheduling

The activities undertaken in typical strategic planning workshops are rarely strategic. With the exception perhaps of some discussion around vision, most of the energy on these days is spent identifying goals, setting targets and mapping out actions and budgets to go with them. They are more like “3 year implementation plan” workshops.

2. Strategy is not a “once a year” activity.

The “one day workshop” approach allocates one day a year out of 365 to strategy. This is absurd when you think about it. So, for 1 day you are required to think strategically, then for the other 364 days you merely implement? Anyone who runs a successful business knows that this is not so.

3. Strategy is not predictable or stable

I know of countless organizations who, once they have completed their strategic plan, then implement it as if it were written in gold. It is not questioned or changed again until same time next year. There is an assumption that the conditions and contexts that were in place when the plan was developed remain stable while the plan is implemented.

So what is Strategy?
Strategy is a way of thinking or behaving that places you or your company in the best position possible for future success. It is essentially a substitute for having clear connections between the positions you take, the business
decisions you make and their economic outcomes. It’s a “what if” game. If I do this, then that will occur and if I do that then the other will occur, and so on.

Strategy is a process of informed and intelligent hypothesizing.

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Key Principles for Strategy (From the ICA Business Building Program)

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1. Recognition of a non-linear, chaotic world
Traditional strategic planning is based on the assumption that the world is a stable place. (Example - If I make this goal today, I can implement it next week.) However we all know the world is not like that. In fact with the speed of technological and global change, the world is a less stable place than ever before. The conditions and contexts within which we act are changing daily (example - If I set this goal today, and an earthquake happens tomorrow, it may no longer be appropriate to implement next week)