What is "Crafted Strategy"?
A "Crafted Strategy" is a clear framework for focussed action by an organisation in pursuit of its specific purpose, based on insights that have been discerned through a rigorous examination of its specific circumstances.Crafted Strategy allows and encourages Strategic spontaneityCrafted Strategy takes the form of a Statement of Intentional Focus that clearly summarizes what the organisation intends to attain and where the organisation intends to be in 'n' years hence; together with 3-5 Parameters that will shape how the organisation intends to act in pursuit of that focus. While it may also include an overview of the major issues that may have been foreshadowed, and consequent activities and goals that are key priorities, it leaves open the details of specific actions, leaving such decisions to those at the front-line.
An illustration of such an approach to strategy is found in "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. He recounts Paul Van Riper's involvement in the Millenium Challenge '02 - a US Joint Forces Command war game simulating an international event in the Gulf area. Van Ripper, a retired General, was appointed to head up the Red Force against the total might of the US armed forces - the Blue Force.
"The first thing I told our staff is that we would be in command and out of control," Van Riper says... "By that I mean that the overall guidance and the intent were provided by me and the senior leadership, but the forces in the field wouldn't depend on intricate orders coming from the top. They were to use their own initiative and be innovative as they went forward. Almost every day, the commander of the Red air forces came up with different ideas of how he was going to pull this together, using different techniques of trying to overwhelm Blue Team from different directions. But he never got specific guidance from me of how to do it. Just the intent." (Blink - page 118)
At the hands of Van Riper's Red team, the US Forces' Blue Team suffered a catastrophic defeat in the first two days of the two week 'war'. One key difference was the way in which the two sides understood strategy - while Blue Team had detailed plans, all sorts of decision making tools, and unprecedented information and intellegence technology, etc., Van Riper communicated a clear intent with guiding parameters but with the freedom for people on the ground to innitiate innovative action plans acording to the specific situations.
Labels: spontaneity, strategy
A Note on Terminology
Unfortunately many (if not most) terms used in writing about
and discussing strategy are not uniformly defined. For instance some
strategists will put ‘Mission’ at the top of the Strategy Process and place ‘Vision’ lower down the list. Others do exactly the opposite. Still others equate the two terms as being synonymous. Each is giving a very different meaning to the terms and the overall result is often confusing.
For this reason I have and will continue to try to avoid much of the traditional terminology and use phrases that more clearly (I think) indicate what is meant.
Labels: strategy
STRATEGY REFRAMED – a basic conceptual overview
Strategy is a concept that was first developed in a military context, and is found in both early Greek and Chinese writings. The term was first employed in business circles in the 1950’s, and by the 70s and 80s was a major tool of corporate and enterprise governance.
20th Century Strategy was based on 2 core precepts:
- Forecasting and Trend-following could give a reasonably accurate prediction of the future; and
- Business Processes could and should be finally and closely controlled and managed.
However the latter part of the 20th Century began to give the lie to both assumptions.
- Change was no longer incremental or even continuous – it became discontinuous. And forecasters found that the future was more of a fog than a clear horizon.
- Business Processes were not as controllable as hoped. In fact the rapid growth of knowledge-based processes as against production based processes exacerbated this – for knowledge based processes were even less controllable than production based processes.
- At the same time there were significant social changes underway. Both in the developed world and in the developing world society lent more and more to values such as individuality, innovation, experience, diversity – all of which meant individuals want personal freedom and personal control, even in their ‘work’ life.
Consequently a new way of looking at Strategy is needed for the 21st Century, one that is
- Directional yet non-directive;
- Robust yet flexible;
- Simple yet holistic;
- Proactive yet still reactive;
- Future focussed yet build on current realities;
- Thinking centred rather than ‘plan’ centred.
I believe that key to such a Reframed Strategy are the following precepts:
- Start with a focus on Principles and Purpose rather than Mission and Vision
- Emphasis on the cyclical nature of the strategy process rather than the linear
- Move from a 'planning' mindset to a Holistic Thinking mindset
- Strategy not seen as a hierarchy task but rather as a co-operative function
- Strategy as an “Intentional Focus” with Key Parameters rather than a specific ‘Plan’
- Commitment to an Enhancement element in the cycle, not just evaluation
- Finance seen as one of several key servant-drivers of the enterprise rather than the ultimate bottom line - includes marketing, HR, IT, operations, etc.
I will comment further on these points in days to come.
Labels: strategy, strategy reframed
Customer Values - Tighe - 2
Stephen make a emphasis on the place of customer values. He said:"Understanding how people think (their mind-set) is the key issue."
How I think >> How I see the world >> How I act
Labels: Customer mindset, marketing
Consumer Values
Interesting session led by Stephen Tighe yesterday. He is Foresight Manager with the brewering company Fosters.
He was rather negative about using demographics as the primary way of defining customer groups (Gen X, etc) and was talking about the importance of how people think (mind-set) and the values these linked to. He spoke of 3 key mindset groupings - Traditionalists; Materialists; and Post-Materialists.
Traditionalists - Conservative, focus on reliability and affordability, find comfort in the familiar.
1989 55% 5.7mil in Aust
2006 42% 5.8mil
Materialists: Self-confident, FOcus on quality and value, individualistic and status focus, sophisticated
1989 26% 2.7mil
2006 34% 4.7mil
Post-materialists: Be yourself; educated, travelled; able and willing to pay premium; look for diversity and innovation
1989 19% 2.0mil
2006 24% 3.7mil
He pointed out that this breakdown was not based on age showing a chart for 89 and 2006 - I only managed to take down the basics of the latter:
25-34 Trad=22% Mat=43% PMat=35%
35-49 Trad=35% Mat=40% PMat=25%
50-64 Trad=55% Mat=27% PMat=18%
65+ Trad=90% Mat=5% PMat=5%
Interesting
Labels: Customer mindset, marketing
Changing Email Adress for e-Newsletters
You would not believe how hard this is. Well, I did not believe it would be hard. I do not believe it
SHOULD be hard. But this week I am changing my email address for a number of e-newsletters that I subscribe to. Less than 50% have a clear "Change your email address" link on their newsletter. (One site with this feature then notified you that changes would be made during the next 3-4 days!!!!!!!!!)
Many insist that you unsubscribe and then resubscribe. But few of these actually give a link to which you can go to subscribe your new address! And the subscription page is serviced by an outsourced supplier, so there is no indication of what their actual site URL is.
Some newsletters are no longer on my list - it was just too hard
AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's better
G
David Maister Podcasts
This morning I received an email from former Harvard Business School Professor and author David Maister about his planned pod-casting. The immediate list of topics looks very interesting and should be well worth accessing.
___________________________
Dear Gordon:
...
I thought you might enjoy a "sneak peek" ahead of the media. Just for you (and not for the press) I'm including a detailed description of each of the episodes, available here: http://davidmaister.com/resources/DMaisterManagementPodcastEpisodeGuide.rtf. The first 4 will be put up on my site this week, then one a week until the series is finished.
I look forward to continuing our conversation!
Best wishes,
David
David Maister
90 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02116
http://davidmaister.com
Telephone: (617) 262-5968
News Release:
*Business Guru David Maister Breaks Ground as First Top-Tier Business Author to Podcast*
US-based business guru David Maister is breaking ground as the first top-tier business author to start podcasting - making professional audio broadcasts available for download on the Web. The former Harvard Business School professor, named one of the top 40 business thinkers in the world, launches his pioneering podcast masterclass series on management this month - available free from his website, http://davidmaister.com.
...Read more here: http://davidmaister.com/news/2/1/
Labels: Maister, Management, podcasts, strategy
MIT SMR Article, "Decision Making: It's Not What You Think" - Spring 2001 Henry Mintzberg and Frances Westley. Reprint 4238:
"Renowned management thinker Henry Mintzberg and business professor Frances Westley zero in on three ways the best managers make decisions. To hone their decision-making skills, business leaders can start by admitting that real-world decisions are not always made through logical steps — and that often they shouldn't be.
Most managers believe they make decisions by using analysis. Define the problem, they say, diagnose its causes, design possible solutions, choose and, finally, implement the choice. But, in reality, they may make their best decisions in some other way — for example, after a flash of intuition or by trying out several things and keeping what works. In fact, the authors show that a focus on 'thinking first' before choosing may interfere with a deep understanding of the issues dividing people and prevent a good decision.
A decision-making approach the authors call 'seeing first' — literally creating a picture with others in order to see everyone's concerns — can surface differences better than analysis and can force a genuine consensus. 'Doing first' — going ahead with an action in order to learn — is the third approach. Each route is best under particular circumstances.
'Thinking first' works best when the issue is clear, data is reliable, the context is structured, thoughts can be pinned down and discipline can be applied — for example, in an established production process. 'Seeing first' works best when many elements must be combined into creative solutions, commitment to those solutions is key and communication across boundaries is essential — for example, in new-product development. 'Doing first' works best when the situation is novel and confusing, when complicated specifications might get in the way and a few simple relationship rules could help people move forward — for example, when companies face a disruptive technology.
If managers learn when to apply each approach, they can increase their effectiveness and give their companies the competitive edge required in uncertain times.
Henry Mintzberg and Frances Westley are professors of management at McGill University in Montreal. Contact them at mintzber@management.mcgill.ca and westley@management.mcgill.ca."
Labels: Decision Making
Lablr
On the top of my wishlist for Blogger was support for categories or labels to organize my posts. Came across this service,
www.labelr.com, that lets me do that seamlessly. Check it out.
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