Strategy

Strategy can be understood as rule-based action leading towards your goal in an uncertain future. Strategy does not include necessarily a time horizon. It’s per se not a time-based plan, e.g. five years. But strategies set effective principles for current decisions. This view collides with often encountered understanding of the word. The label “strategic” is often attached to other terms whenever it is something important or the higher management is involved. This doesn’t render it per se strategic. Nor does the time frame. Accordingly, companies and organisations develop strategies for five or even ten years. Then, they only to take them out of the drawer when it’s to time to review them, i.e. after five or ten years, to formulate a new one. Wonder why 85% of so-called strategies are never implemented? 

In these cases “poor execution” is mostly identified as cause – mainly by the strategist or consultant or the upper management. Thereby, they put the blame on each other’s shoulders. As alternative it’s the fault of the outside world: The market conditions have changed dramatically. The customers have switched preferences and so on. This we will hear more often in the VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity). With a well-drafted strategy and the implementation of a Strategic Management System you will keep on course, keep track – despite changes of market conditions.