AlbuonStrategy Newsletter September 2020

Death, Taxes and Strategy

“Only three things in life are certain: 1) death, 2) taxes, and 3) the fact that today’s strategy won’t work tomorrow.  At some point in the future, your products will become obsolete, your customers’ tastes will change, and technology will render your business model uncompetitive.  Today’s success will be tomorrow’s old news.  The question is not if, but when.” Robert Simons, a Harvard Business School professor and author of Seven Strategy Questions (See our blog: Recommended Reading: Seven Strategic Questions.)  Simon’s quote states the stark reality of business, for today’s uncertain times and challenges.  

At Albu Consulting we believe the path to successfully manage the strategic uncertainty facing businesses today is by establishing “strategy management” as an organizational competency.  By applying the principles of the strategy management process, you and your leadership team will make better decisions, more often and with greater confidence, and you will create greater business value today and tomorrow. 

What are the key drivers of the strategy management framework?

Strategy management is a continuous process.  It is the foundation on which you make decisions and the cornerstone of how your employees work.  By adopting a strategy management framework, your employees will take leadership of a disciplined recurring process that will keep your long term strategic objectives at the forefront of everyone’s mind, as well as keep your business model relevant.   

The business environment is dynamic, not static. Your strategy process needs to adapt to the unexpected.  Some strategies will be successful, while others will not, and new strategies will emerge. Markets and competitors are constantly changing and while you plan to stay the course, opportunities and challenges will present themselves and will require a prompt unplanned course of action.  The destination might remain the same, but the journey will change along the way.  Accept this as the reality of managing strategy.

Successful strategy execution requires a collaborative environment.  To be successful, strategy needs to be a part of everyone’s day-to-day activities and collaborative across departments.  The day-to-day running of a business is time consuming and challenging, and it is often hard to find time to work on important strategic initiatives.  By engaging employees and encouraging strategic discussions across functional responsibilities, the level of commitment to exceed strategic objectives increases dramatically.

Change is inevitable and the capacity to be open minded, flexible and inclusive allows your organization to pivot when necessary is a unique competency and leads to the successful achievement of strategic objectives.  We strive to help our clients achieve and exceed all of their strategic objectives through excellence in the strategy management process.  Call us to learn more about how you can benefit from the discipline of strategy management. 

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Quote:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”  Charles Darwin