Real strategy is hard and especially hard given the global pandemic where our assumptions have shifted quickly and unpredictably. How do you create an effective strategy given this dynamic changing environment?
First let’s define what strategy is and is not. Strategy is an approach, it is the how, to address and overcome complex, messy, challenges and opportunities faced. Its aim is to make possible multiple futures and create awareness of and shape what happens. It is not an episodic, annual or a rigid plan with goals, initiatives, and budgets. This traditional approach is not agile and doesn’t help adapt quickly to changing environments. It assumes the world is stable and certain and fails to defend against threats or take advantage of opportunities. A set of goals are not strategy. An amorphous vision statement, value proposition, or gut instinct is not strategy. It is not what you are already doing and fitting into a plan or PowerPoint. Last, not least, it is not a secret; how often I have spoken with middle managers who are unaware of the strategy of the organization. If nobody knows about what the strategy is, it cannot influence actions or decisions and fails in execution.
To have a successful strategy it must:
- Clearly identify the problem you are trying to solve
- Engage stakeholders in the strategic planning process
- Stay focused and map out the approach to address the problem
- Lay out an executable action plan and communicate the strategy
Strategy brings clarity to the problem you are trying to solve. It is not always apparent at first. Start with a full analysis to identify the problem and create a picture of what the world looks like today and what is likely to happen in the future. This analysis leads to defining a clearer picture of the problem and solutions. To take a household brand to market it involves numerous analyses including conducting focus groups and stakeholder interviews, market assessments to identify key trends and market demand, gleaming through reams of data to inhabit customers’ needs and desires, understand problems they encounter, their frustrations, to determine “the how to” best position a product to meet their needs and address their challenges. It was not clear at first how to position the product, so during the analysis process it was important to keep an open mind, put all ideas on the table, and consider the full spectrum of opportunities and threats. By identifying these upfront eventually, a clearer picture emerges of existing and possible strategies to successfully take a product to market.
Engage stakeholders and immerse them in the strategic planning process. They offer different, values, judgements, beliefs, and perspectives, and this sparks new ideas. Apply various planning tools, such as scenario planning, to help elicit and see what ideas are possible or not in various futures. This stakeholder engagement upfront strengthens the teams’ ability to be strategic, understand the challenges faced and how solve for them and, most importantly, create alignment around the approach and outcome.
It is important during the process not to pursue too many initiatives or wish lists with conflicting purposes and unconnected to one another. Have a clear approach, stay focused on the problem you are trying to solve.
Alignment is key when it comes to executing a strategy action plan. This may sound simple but the area where organizations fall down. Too often I have seen alignment of strategy translate into a set of cascading goals and budgets to support those goals. It is not apparent to the operators what the strategy is, how to execute on it and focus becomes meeting budget, limiting strategy. To achieve alignment of strategy, it must be embodied within the organization and include what it takes to execute on it. It must be translated into the organization resources and capabilities-processes, governance, culture, technologies- needed to achieve it and include finance as a partner to provide the analysis and support to bring the strategy to life. Develop an action plan that includes defining these capabilities and resources in house to execute on the strategy or if you need to outsource.
Strategy is a dynamic and an iterative cycle that orients the organization toward the future while keeping an eye on the present. Strategy needs to be revisited continuously to face shifts, challenges and opportunities presented by internal and external forces. The road to achieving strategy diverges, so you must gather these experiences along the way, apply and adapt.
As in the words of George Bernard Shaw, “Don’t wait for the right opportunity: create it.” A dynamic strategy enables us to be nimble, identify opportunities and take hold of them to create competitive advantage.
