An effective strategy is easy to understand and easy to communicate.
It's about pointing out a direction, getting people along and moving in the right direction. Everything changes along the way and success depends on your ability to perform!
The short variant of strategy for those who do not have time to read the entire article:
Strategy is to choose a direction and implement as a hell.
This means not all must run around as headless chickens. That means pretty simply that you not needs to have all the details in place to get started. Many people are struggling with this thinking, but I hope you by reading this article will have a clearer idea what strategy - Actually, it's about!
What's strategy?
It took years to understand what strategy really was about. I connected a strategy with some good grown men in the suit agreed on in the steering room with the help of some good consultants from McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group or Anderson Consulting.
I have been given the opportunity to read through internal strategy documents in a number of Norwegian and international companies. Some developed by persons internally, others developed by external consultants. It has been interesting reading – often very much reading...
When I took a MBA in technology and innovation management We learned about all the theoretical about creating a good strategy. We went through various case studies, used Porters 5 force-model and concerned all the typical ‘vision’, ‘mission’ and ‘objectives’ that were important elements of a long-term strategy.
After the MBA studies, I plowed through a selection of books. The ones I remember best are What the CEO wants you to know , and Winning by Jack Welch (see my summary) and Tribal Leadership, a book on the importance of enterprise culture.
During my first years of working life I was most concerned with Jack Welch's advice because it is well in line with my experience of strategy. Welch is considered one of the world's largest leaders after directing General Electric to become one of the world's most successful companies over 2 decades. Welch has raised considerable criticism over the years as a result of his leadership style, but I base a lot of my view on strategy on Welch's ideas and practical thinking.
Recently I have taken more inspiration from books focusing on interaction, business culture, teams, basic values and implementation power. Company as Ideo and Zappos believes that a good culture of enterprises automatically leads to good results in other areas. The main message is that companies of the same values working for a common objective do much more than companies that pounce and present people towards an economic goal.
So what's really strategy?
Jack Welch says the following about strategy (free translated by me):»Strategy is not a time-consuming plan. It's an evolution of an idea over time through continuous changes in assumptions. Strategy is really simple, choose a general direction and implements as hell.‘
The message of simplicity is repeated in several books about good leaders, successful investors and successful sportsmen. Jack Welch is focusing on it, Warren Buffet, The world’s most capable investor bases its investment philosophy on that and the president of the United States, Barack Obama, is focusing on simple messages! When people like Jack Welch, Warren Buffet and Barack Obama focus on simplicity, should we others do that too? The reason why simplicity is so important is because simple messages spread faster.
Jack Welch says:
Simple messages tend to spread faster. When a message spreads, the chance of a breakthrough increases.
What should you do in terms of strategy?
There are many ways to develop a strategy. I recommend the 3-step plan for Jack Welch in terms of strategy:
- Come up with a 'big aha» for the enterprise(or your department, website or project) – a smart, realistic and fast way to obtain a lasting competitive advantage.
- Get the right people in place to run the big aha in the future
- Continuously seek out best practices internally and externally to achieve the large ‘a’. When you identify best practice, adopt and improve them at a high pace.
1. The Big Aha
The biggest challenge is to get up with "The big aha". Here, much innovation and creativity is needed. If there's an idea you're looking for, then the chance is great that the idea arises elsewhere than at work- What? Fortunately, the big aha doesn't need to be a new and groundbreaking idea. There may be incremental improvements of something that already exists.
To do this, you can look at the competitive landscape. Answer questions like: who are the competitors? Are there any exciting newcomers? What are your forces/weaknesses compared to competitors? What kind of future threats can affect the competitive landscape? What do you/theirs have to do to win?
The point is, you have to choose a general direction and get started! It doesn't have to be a wonderful idea. It is no use waiting for the "big aha". It also doesn't work to completely outsource the pursuit of the great aha. Then you end up paying very much to expensive consultants, and getting done very little!
Success in this strategic approach requires flexibility and action-oriented involvement. There are many uncertain factors and most of them change along the way. When uncertainty becomes too great, you have to lean towards what you can do with and what you know leads to successSo let's say that this is the same thing as that.
In parallel to trying to identify the big aha, you can run full speed at the last two points of the 3-step plan; get the right people in place and look up best practices at a high pace.
2. The Right People
There are many good people out there and a good team is made up of people with different properties. Welch uses something he calls the acid test to filter out the candidates concerned. The Acid test has three elements: integrity, intelligence and maturity. Good people motivate each other to act. Every time you do something, they're motivated.
In addition to using the acid test, I recommend focusing more on basic values than on the skills in the recruitment process. Zappos recommends a 'Hire for attitude - train for distinction'. In addition, they recommend the 'hire slow – four quickly'. A ratty apple can quickly destroy a whole team.
Either you hire or you rent in, it's important that the person passes these filters. If you pass these filters, Welch looks at other things like energy level, against, action and passion. I'll recommend you to read Winning for more about the right people.
Three. Best practice and implementations as hell
This is the simplest and most manageable step in Welch's 3-step plan. Here it is about learning from others, identifying best practices and implementing as hell. When you do this, you'll discover that things start to happen. When you get results, you will notice that people become engaged and want to join. It's about getting the wheel to start rolling.
To do this, you need to build skills, take advantage of other people's experiences, put implementation into system and run on! If you're lucky, you'll come up with the big aha on your way to the goal!
Choose a general direction and implement as hell!