Re-imagine the future
S+B reports onThe Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. Read more
Chief Performance Officer?
Nice simple observation from Tom Davenport on this idea, in particular asking if the new role might help end silo management. Read more
New book-opening
Just updated the revised opening for chapter 1 of Strategic Management Dynamics, which you can download from www.strategydynamics.com/smd-new-start. This includes an important correction to the explanation of free cash-flow on p.27 that was unfortunately introduced when the document was laid out – apologies.
Reminder – This document reviews through some well-known cases the current philosophy and some basic tools of business strategy to make the case for a continuous, holistic approach to strategic management, i.e. strategy dynamics.
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Get strategic planning right
Useful reminder to avoid flaws in strategic planning in HBP’s Management Essentials. Especially good to see the first item:
- Don’t skip rigorous analysis.
- Don’t think strategy can be built in a day.
- Take care to link strategic planning to strategy execution.
- Make sure to hold robust strategy review meetings.
This may all seem verypedestrian in these exciting times of strategic innovation and reinventing your business model – but no less critical than it always was.
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MBAs not learning to avoid crises
In MBA Students Aren’t Learning to Avoid Future Crises from Net Impact, 90% surveyed blame short-term business focus for the crisis … and fewer than a quarter think their courses help them avoid future crises. Still not seen any sign of strategy approaches to help with this, as featured in my recent presentation, which offers some suggestions.
It seems today’s MBA students, if not all those they follow, are pretty smart.
Testing assumptions
An interview with Dan Ariely in Sloan Mgmt Review points up the need to test assumptions – critical, of course, and can’t fault Dan’s case. But doing as he asks on serious strategic decisions is not so easy. Read more
Short online strategy course
Just launched a short course at open learning materials provider, Coggno. Its free intro on ‘what is strategy’ may be useful in any case – it makes the case, with examples, that steering strategy and performance is a larger issue that the infrequent choice of strategic ‘position’ that dominates strategy books and courses. The short course is based on the full 10-week video slide-show course used in MBA programs.
Simple strategy dynamics case example
Most of the corporate work I do on strategy can’t be made public, so here’s a small case from the non-profit sector that nevertheless demonstrates the principles of strategy dynamics. [It's not just businesses that need strategy!]. Download the report at the end of the full post, but please read and appreciate the background before doing so. I am grateful to Andrew Daw and Doug Cowper, past and current UK presidents, for permission to make this report public. Read more
Strategy – a troubled discipline
Managers may not know or care, but this really matters. I’ve argued for professional strategic management before [search the archive], but if there’s a crisis in the discipline itself, there’s little chance of ever achieving that aim. Be clear – the academic topic of strategy is in real crisis. Students don’t like the courses, recruiters don’t value what they learn, executives don’t use its tools, and academics don’t want to be part of the field. A recent academic journal has some reasonably accessible discussion about the issue [not free I regret]. Here’s more about the problem, why it has come to pass, and possible solutions. Read more
Strategy in asset-heavy firms + model
the Economist says Mr Obama plans big spend to fix US infrastructure. Origins of problems that led to bridges collapsing, water mains bursting, and massive sewage leaks are easy to see – politicians can always put off long-term investment in favour of short-term give-aways. But CEOs face similar temptations. Read on for a detailed explanation of this topic and an exercise to try for yourself … Read more