Strategy is not solely of concern to firms of course, but to public services, voluntary organisations and others [though you would hardly know it to read the strategy textbooks and journals, which largely ignore these vast sections of the modern economy]. The collapse of Dubai is a spectacular case of strategic incompetence, but also throws up an issue of wider importance.
Jan 022010
Dec 312009
Good to see strategy+business magazine on why operations strategy is vital to strategic performance. In Winter-09 edn An Essential Step for Corporate Strategy, Tim Laster points out that many operational decisions have huge implications for firms’ ability to build and sustain critical resources and capabilities, in spite of efforts by Michael Porter and others to dismiss their impotance. We do, though, need to go further, and develop a holistic, continuous view of strategy across all functions of course.
Just working on the first chapter of the textbook 2nd edition, and thought it needed a bit more on this question – found the only way to explain to newbies was to go through an organization’s life and track what ‘strategic management’ actually does over that time-horizon. Main messages are:
- The choice of strategic ‘position’ [what to provide, to whom and how, relative to rivals] is a very rare activity.
- Substantial strategic initiatives [acquisition, new market entry etc] occur occasionally.
- By far the majority of the task is steering [a.ka. implementing] the strategy from period to period.
So – how come the attention in all the textbooks and journals is in precisely the opposite priority? Continue reading »
