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Any company can follow the same path as these successful firms, and an increasing number of companies are doing just that. If you join them, you will need to cultivate the ability to translate the strategic into the everyday. This means linking strategy and execution closely together by creating distinctive, complex capabilities that set your company apart, and applying them to every product and service in your portfolio. These capabilities combine all the elements of execution — technology, human skills, processes, and organizational structures — to deliver your company’s chosen value proposition.
How do you accomplish this on a day-to-day basis? How do you get the strategists and implementers in your company to work together effectively? These 10 principles, derived from our experience at Strategy&, can help you avoid common pitfalls and accelerate your progress. For companies that truly embrace strategy through execution, principles like these become a way of life.
Via David Hain
Many strategy execution processes fail because the firm does not have something worth executing. The strategy consultants come in, do their work, and document the new strategy in a PowerPoint presentation and a weighty report. Town hall meetings are organized, employees are told to change their behavior, balanced scorecards are reformulated, and budgets are set aside to support initiatives that fit the new strategy. And then nothing happens. One major reason for the lack of action is that “new strategies” are often not strategies at all. A real strategy involves a clear set of choices that define what the firm is going to do and what it’s not going to do. Many strategies fail to get implemented, despite the ample efforts of hard-working people, because they do not represent a set of clear choices. Many so-called strategies are in fact goals. “We want to be the number one or number two in all the markets in which we operate” is one of those. It does not tell you what you are going to do; all it does is tell you what you hope the outcome will be. But you’ll still need a strategy to achieve it.
Via The Learning Factor
This report lays out the current state of AI for business, describes primary and emerging use cases, and states the risks, opportunities and organizational considerations that businesses are facing. It concludes with recommendations for companies thinking about applying AI to their own organizations, and a look at some of the business, legal and technical trends that are likely to shape the future. Key Findings When it comes to use cases, narrow and clear is better than new and shiny. Some of the most promising uses of AI today are highly specialized and highly vertical — from farming, to self-driving cars, to predictive analytics and precision medicine. In many cases, the most successful deployments will identify buying signals and churn signals and automate complex processes.AI will become a forcing function for an organizational data strategy. AI learns from vast amounts of data. Clean, accessible data is the foundation upon which successful AI is built. This means that data availability and accessibility should be early considerations when determining where to build, and where not to build, AI into systems.Ultimately, the opportunity (and risk) of systems based on machine learning is in their ability to sense, communicate, learn, act and adapt over time, and to connect with other systems. It’s not just about devices that will play a song or order tickets to a concert.Governance, privacy, ethics, and trust are critical to the customer experience. Even with a relatively “narrow” AI, it’s important to understand that enabling machines to learn and act based on data and past experience has significant implications. It’s critical to scenario plan for AI deployments — not only for the legal and regulatory reasons, but to protect and enhance the customer experience.
Via Farid Mheir
They focus on a few positive attributes and amplify them. What most executive teams typically fail to do is to connect the company’s culture with how the company makes its strategy work. Take Starbucks: The cafe chain positions itself not just as a seller of coffee but as an experience provider, creating a “third place” for conviviality beyond home and the workplace. Walk into a Starbucks anywhere in the world and you will find a consistently comfortable and welcoming ambiance. But you don’t get that simply by telling your staff to be warm and friendly.
Via Marc Wachtfogel, Ph.D.
The time has come to rethink strategy. Constant turbulence and disruption require a new approach to change management.
But if asked today, could you explain exactly how your organization determined that your strategic goals should all be achieved by 2020? Did you see a great market opportunity on the horizon that would close by that date? Was your team inspired by 2020 to drive your latest product development to new heights by that time? More often than not, it turns out 2020 is... just a date, albeit, a memorable one. (And we can all appreciate the play on words of "Vision 2020.") But basing strategic goals on something as arbitrary as a sexy number can be hazardous. As the date creeps closer, how do you determine if your strategy is off course? Here are three key factors for you to consider:
In the fast paced environment of global business, mobile technologies, and ever-expanding expectations of customers - clients and stakeholders developing and sustaining innovation is key to success. How you encourage and promote a culture of innovation, especially during strategic planning, is always a critical topic for any leader. One often overlooked path to innovation is deep partnerships and healthy relationships with your internal and external business and functional partners.
Most teams approach strategy development by looking in their rear-view mirror.
This article describes the key features of an effective corporate learning strategy (CLS) and will help you understand how and why your strategy needs to be linked to organisational goals.
Digitization trends are reshaping the industrial world. The risk of disruption brings with it significant opportunities. BCG’s Digitization Strategy Framework provides companies with the tools needed to capture new digitization opportunities. The framework consists of a diagnosis phase that helps industrial organizations set the basis for strategy development through understanding global trends, customer needs, and competitors' activities, and to evaluate current capabilities and gaps. Organizations can then employ a set of building blocks to develop a successful digitization strategy:
Via Farid Mheir, ValerieMalaval
Almost every business today faces major strategic challenges. The path to creating value is seldom clear. In an ongoing global survey of senior executives conducted by Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business, more than half of the 4,400 respondents said they didn’t think they had a winning strategy. In another survey of more than 500 senior executives around the world, nine out of 10 conceded that they were missing major opportunities in the market. In the same survey, about 80 percent of those senior executives said that their overall strategy was not well understood, even within their own company.
Via The Learning Factor
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Mauricio knew that he must carve out time for strategic conversations with his leadership team, but during a one-on-one coaching session he told me he was puzzled. When he had suggested to his leadership team that they have these conversations, people had nodded their heads and said they’d raise strategic agenda items. Yet their meetings continued to focus on the day-to-day numbers, operational processes, and immediate crises.
Unfortunately, this scenario is common for many leadership teams — when facing immediate concerns, it’s difficult to remain strategic. Senior executives need to balance the long- and short-term demands of their businesses, and meetings need to mirror this balance. But they rarely do when executives don’t realize the pitfalls of meetings that conflate strategy and operations.
Via David Hain
Most companies have articulated their purpose — the reason they exist. But very few have made that purpose a reality for their organizations. Consider Nokia. Before the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, Nokia was the dominant mobile phone maker with a clearly stated purpose — “Connecting people” — and an aggressive strategy for sustaining market dominance. Seeking to extend its technological edge (particularly in miniaturization), it acquired more than 100 startup companies while pursuing a vast portfolio of research and product development projects. In 2006 alone, Nokia introduced 39 new mobile-device models. Few imagined that this juggernaut, brandishing vast resources with such steely determination, could be quickly brought down. In retrospect, it seems inevitable. Nokia was so immersed in executing its strategy that it lost sight of its purpose. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone as “a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been, and super-easy to use,” Apple started “connecting people” at astounding new levels. Nokia’s purpose had been co-opted, making its myriad strengths irrelevant. The once-dominant Nokia soon lost much of its market cap and was eventually acquired by Microsoft.
Via The Learning Factor
I can remember just a year ago when, by chance, I found myself having a conversation with a woman affiliated with the United Nations. I began to open up to her about my vision for reimagining higher education. I recognized there wasn’t anything logical about why she should be interested in my idea. I didn’t have much to show for it like a fancy website, sponsors or a big social media presence, but I did have one thing that set me apart—passion. I was able to convey my “why” behind my project, the burning need I felt for the education system to expand its horizons to prepare students for nontraditional career paths. She was immediately enrolled, and on the spot she invited me to present my idea to the UN in 3 weeks.
Via The Learning Factor
Doesn’t “strategy” often feel like a four-letter word? (I know that it actually contains more than four letters, but you get the point.) Doesn’t the thought of building strategy for your organization that is both practical and motivating make you feel anxious and even a little bit nauseous? Many of you may have answered in the affirmative, but do you know why strategy building and implementing business strategy can feel more like a roadblock than a highway to success? Do you know why many companies have a very hard time creating strategy that actually leads to outstanding results?
These strategy traps might seem deceptively simple but they trip up executives time and again. Discover what to watch out for to make smarter decisions and create customer-centric innovations.
They focus on a few positive attributes and amplify them.
There’s nothing wrong with having a quarterly target; cash is the oxygen of a growth business, and it needs to be managed very carefully. But company leaders, especially those who are still learning to navigate their market, must have a deep, unwavering focus on how they will win over the long run. Doing anything else is like driving across the country while looking only five feet in front of your car. How CEOs can change the conversation.
From the 3rd Results Oriented principle, Leader behaviors – McKinsey research helps us know what works best today. From the article: 5 Strategies to Lead Change, Using Liberating Structures
Five key concepts and supporting research and tools will help you lead through adaptive change in a VUCA world, one that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous, as presented in Mexico City for CPA firm leaders at the Russell Bedford International conference, yet applicable for any leader.
Researchers showed that out of 20 distinct leadership traits identified in organizations whose leadership performance was strong, high-quality leadership teams typically displayed 4 of the 20 possible types of behavior. These 4 behaviors explained 89 percent of the variance between strong and weak organizations in terms of leadership effectiveness
1. Solving problems effectively.
2. Operating with a strong results orientation.
3. Seeking different perspectives.
4. Supporting others.
This is from the McKinsey Quarterly, first published in 1964, which now offers the perspective today that “much of the management intuition that has served us in the past will become irrelevant,” (Dobbs, 2014.) McKinsey forecasts a crash of:
1) technological disruption,
2) rapid emerging-markets growth, and
3) widespread aging as “long-held assumptions [give] way, and seemingly powerful business models [become] upended.”
Sound familiar? Are you ready?
Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN
The most capable strategists see the real value, and big pitfalls, in new business concepts.
innovation strategy barrier - fear of change and new ideas – is to disguise new ideas as your team develops and implements them. Yes, you got that right. If
In this article, I will touch upon what social learning is and the reasons why you should adopt it. I will also outline how exactly you can use it to enhance your existing learning strategy and the business gains that will accrue as a result.
Position yourself for the future by looking at what stays constant. That's how star companies like Amazon, Apple, and Lego consistently leap ahead of competitors, say strategy experts Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi in their new book, Strategy That Works. The authors say that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' November 2012 fireside chat (watch it on YouTube) perfectly explains this strategy. Here's what Bezos said: I very frequently get the question 'What's gonna change in the next 10 years?'...I almost never get the question 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two. Because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.
Via The Learning Factor
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