Manifesto. In his book, The Lean Startup, Eric Ries describes the constant challenge entrepreneurs face between “Pivoting and Persevering”, but he doesn’t describe the even harder challenge of deciding when to hit the reset button. (Maybe Eric views “reset” as a “hard pivot”?) With my last company, WiredReach, while I eventually succeeded in discovering viable “customer problems” to solve and even got pretty far in terms of validating the business model (with positive cash flow), something was grossly missing: passion for customers and their problems. I had unknowingly tweaked my founding vision along the way and had become a company with a “solution looking for a problem”. The viable customers and markets I found were unexpected. People form a startup for several reasons, many of which can lead to successful businesses (and/or exits).
However, I had reached a stage where I was looking for something more: purpose. I was forced to confront my problem–passion disconnect and saw two options. P.S. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. What Is Strategy? Hey you! You’re a bright one. You’ve got a real spark, I think you’re ready for some real high-level thinking. You are now a strategist! That’s right! No more toiling away in the Dickensian world of Word and Excel, you are now strictly in PowerPoint.
You have transcended the Samsara of everyday business life and achieved the Nirvana of full strategic consciousness. Great. All too often, “strategy” is a value judgement rather than a practice. The Core Strategic Principle “Strategy” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, to such an extent that many people don’t even think it’s worth the effort. Many very capable executives echo the sentiment. A strategy doesn’t have to be long, drawn out thing. The Core Strategic Dilemma So the strategic principle is clear: know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Put some people in a room and before long a consensus will form around general principles. How To Keep Yourself Honest Nevertheless, we can minimize the mess by following a few simple rules: Greg.
3 Levels of Strategy. What makes a good strategy? Ask a collection of management gurus and you’ll get a variety of answers. Some say that you need a vision. Others emphasize focus on your core competencies. Still others would insist that you innovate your business model and on it goes. There is also a divide on who should formulate strategy. While some hold that it is a management function, others believe that it should emerge from the bottom-up. Often it is developed by high priced consultants who specialize in strategy (many of whom have never actually run a business themselves.
Mission and Strategic Intent On the top level, in the domain of the founder or current CEO, a mission must be articulated. Articulating a vision in this way serves as a battle cry for the organization and forms a basis for making decisions. Forming and pursuing a specific strategic intent is important, even crucial, because it defines success and infuses an organization with meaning. Moreover, strategic intent is somewhat static. The Failure of Strategy (and Strategists) Early in my career, I got to know a guy who left his position as Managing Director of a prestigious network ad agency to become a consultant.
He called himself a “strategist.” Boy was I impressed! “He must be really smart,” I thought, to have people pay him just to tell them what to do. However, over the years (and, ironically, after becoming a strategist myself), I’ve become decidedly less enamored. I’m not alone either. While strategists have multiplied, they have struggled to remain relevant. The Rise of Consultants The practice of consulting has arguably been around since 1886 when Arthur D. By the 1960’s and 1970’s a whole slew of methodologies and models came to the fore. Before long, management consulting became sexy, attracting the top students from prestigious MBA programs and raking in a ton of cash. Accounting firms started bundling strategic advice with auditing services (creating a conflict of interest nightmare).
Strategic Breakdown The dissonance is no accident. . - Greg.