What does successful business strategy look like?
The below includes highlights of key takeaways from Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt and Strategy in Action by Thomas D. Zweifel and Edward J. Borey.
Good Strategy
- Leaders who say no to actions or interests- strategy is as much about what an organization does not do as much as it does
- Focused energy and resources on one or few pivotal objectives whose accomplishment will lead to cascade of outcomes
- 3 skills one must develop: tools to fight own myopia, ability to question own judgment, cultivate habit of making and recording judgments so that you can improve
- 3 components: diagnosis of situation, choice of overall guiding policy, and design of coherent action
Bad Strategy
Four Signs
- Fluff with esoteric concepts
- Fails to recognize or define challenge/obstacles
- Mistaking goals for strategy- long on goals, short on policy or action
- Bad strategic objectives
Strategy in Action
Michael Porter defined strategy as building sustainable long-term competitive advantage. This is done by building in the context of external forces and opportunities shaping its industry.
Seven Building Blocks
- Shared Understanding
- Strategic Intent
- Strategic thrusts or objectives
- Indicators of success
- Leadership
- Catalytic actions
- Sustaining Momentum
I think an inhibiting factor in the success of implementing business strategy is that it is often discussed only by high level executives and that information is not filtered down and clearly communicated to the key working members of the organization for their input of how to achieve those strategic visions. Any strategic ideas presented are not followed up on regularly as to how those are achieved.
This is best summarized from the book by Gary Hamel, a visiting Professor at London Business School, in that he says “the organizational pyramid is a pyramid of experience. But experience is valuable only to the extent that the future is like the past.”
How can we create meaningful business strategy that is actionable?
