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Paul J. H. Schoemaker wrote an article a few weeks ago on Inc.com that generated a lot of excitement on the Linkedin community. The article "6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers" pinpoints the challenge of alignment.
The six habits:
- Anticipate
- Think Critically
- Interpret
- Decide
- Align
- Learn
Read the full story on Inc.com.
Richard P. Rumelt's latest book Good Strategy / Bad Strategy is a must read for all decision makers.
Out of all the literature written about Strategy, Rumelt has a different and honest approach to strategy in his latest book.
For example, in the real world many leaders don't understand and will not comprehend what strategy is – and you can't win them all, leave it and move on.
What I really like in his book is that he has explained the academic and scientific foundation to what strategy is. He talks about "The problem of induction" and explains the reasoning behind "The system of deduction".
Mr. Richard P. Rumelt and his wife Mrs. Kate Rumelt at FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2011. (CC) Financial Times
Richard P. Rumelt is a Professor of Business & Society at UCLA Anderson, a graduate school of business and management. He studied decision sciences and corporate strategy at the Harvard Business School, receiving his doctorate in 1972.
Further on, Rumelt uses real world examples from well-known organizations/companies such as Apple, Wal-Mart, Ford, NASA, Toyota, Starbucks, IBM, IKEA, Pentagon and many more, explaining how they did it. And it makes it easier to understand the theory when it is put into its real life context.
Many of the things Rumelt say comes across as obvious, ever so often organizations define their strategies with "optimistic financial goals" or "fluffy statements of vision and mission". That is not a strategy. "A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end."
We share the same experiences Rumelt describes.
Our tools for creating strategic plans incorporates much of the way of his thinking. We always start from a Guiding Policy composing an end-state and a visual plan comprised of structured coherent actions leading us to the end-state.
Without action, the world would still be an idea.
/Richard P. Rumelt
More on Richard Rumelt
The book Good Strategy / Bad Strategy home page
Richard Rumelt's Blog
www.strategyland.com
Ever so often I'm struck by the fact that most crisis management initiatives lack the strategic perspective. It became obvious when I recently read the book Manager's Guide to Crisis Management, McGraw-Hill 2011 by Jonathan Bernstein.
It is understandable that crisis management has a tactical perspective, i.e. doing things in real time. However, this doesn't exclude the strategic perspective on how things shall be managed and executed. In a crisis situation it is equally important to know where we are going and when a crisis can be considered completed by the end of the day or more precise what is the outlined End-State from a strategic perspective.
People need to know or at least have a sense of completion. Strategy is the cumulative sum of tactical actions leading to the end-state and managed by identified capabilities.
A common misconception is to express strategy with activities; e.g. "My strategy is to outsource IT" that is not a strategy more of a step that we take within a strategy.
Strategy is the implementation of the cumulative sum of all the steps that will lead us to the End State - the position or the state we want to be in when the strategy has been implemented.
Many leaders express "their strategy" as something they want to achieve in the near future. It may very well be important to achieve at the moment. But a strategy has the direction and points out where the organization wants to be in the long term. Of course there are many steps along the way and each step should help you to reach the End State, but the steps itself are not the strategy.
To make sure that goals and objectives are aligned and consistent with the strategy a validated strategic plan will guide you. With our visual tool and method we can help You to create Your strategic plan that leads to the End State with successful implementation.
Harvard University Professor Michael Porter explains the difference between goals and strategy under 2 minutes in this video.