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.
What is strategy? … and the strategy life-cycle
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? Read more