Strategy and Future Choices

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What is strategy and why is it so difficult?

Strategies are fundamentally about choice, difference and advantage. It is as much about deciding what not to do and being alert to signals or noise, as it is about what will be done. It incorporates a systems perspective, it is intent-focused, level shifting, opportunistic and timely.

SETTING THE SCENE

Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies.- A.G.Lafley and Roger Martin
Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.- Michael Porter
Giving up the illusion that you can predict the future is a very liberating moment. All you can do is give yourself the capacity to respond... the creation of that capacity is the purpose of strategy.- John Browne
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.- Michael Porter

Questions to consider

Why are some companies adopting and implementing innovative strategies, while others struggle?
What is a winning aspiration?
Where will we play?
How will we win?
What capabilities must we have in place to win?
What management systems are required to support our choices?
Which business models shape transformative customer relationships?
How can visionary thinking become a repeatable organisational capability?
What are your next moves?
How can you close the gap between strategy and successful execution?
How do you develop a mindset or capabilities that indelibly link both the development of a strategic destination and a well-conceived path for execution that gets the organisation there?

Happy reading and stay curious!

Here is more information about this selection of books.

The Emergent Approach to Strategy: Adaptive Design & Execution (Business Expert Press, June 2022) by Peter Compo. The premise of this book is that the science of complex adaptive systems must provide the bedrock on which strategy is built. Change and innovation are not wholly planned but emerge from the myriad interactions of the players involved some by design, many not. The Emergent Approach to Strategy is the first book to derive the definition, theory, and practice of strategy from adaptive systems. Aimed at corporate business and functional leaders, but broadly applicable, the approach includes an agile method for strategy framework design and presents new tests of strategy called the Five Disqualifiers.

Connected Strategy: Building Continuous Customer Relationships for Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, April 2019) by Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch. What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost? This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency.

Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy (Gallery Books, August 2020) by Patrick Bet-David. A practical and effective guide for thinking more clearly and achieving audacious professional goals. It aims to help clarify what you want and who you want to be and the tactics for growth and delivery. Planning 5 moves ahead is enough to let you know your possible moves and countermoves without overthinking them; and there are 5 key moves required for success in any business: understand yourself, solve problems effectively, build a winning team, strategise to scale, and master power plays.

Lead from the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth (Harvard Business Review Press, April 2020) by Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz. The authors introduce a new way of thinking and managing, called "future-back," that enables any manager to become a practical visionary. Addressing the many barriers to change, they present a systematic approach that includes: principles and mind-set that allow leadership teams to look beyond typical short-term planning horizons; a method for turning emerging challenges into the growth opportunities that can define an organisation's future; a step-by-step approach for translating a vision into a strategic plan that teams can align around and commit to; ways to ensure that visionary thinking becomes a repeatable organisational capability.

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (Harvard Business Review Press, February 2013) by A.G.Lafley and Roger Martin. This book shows how leaders in organisations of all sizes can guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals built around the clear, essential elements that determine business success—where to play and how to win. The result is a playbook for winning. Lafley and Martin have created a set of five essential strategic choices that, when addressed in an integrated way, will move you ahead of your competitors.

Strategy to Reality: Making the Impossible Possible for Business Architects, Change Makers and Strategy Execution Leaders (Morgan James Publishing, July 2022) by Whynde Kuehn. It offers a well-informed, holistic view that offers Business Architecture Practitioners and Strategy Execution Leaders with the in-house training and tools they need to close the gap between strategy and successful execution. She believes that every organisation needs to build their own capacity for continuous change, and it is her goal that they reach their goals, while gaining the “vision” they need to see the clearest course of action and to weave it all together.

Strategy and Future Choices

SETTING THE SCENE

Questions to consider

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