Last week I wrote about what are the key ingredients of a successful strategist. While writing that I figured that I should take a crack at writing about the commandments of Strategy.
Now the question arose, how many commandments does strategy really have? Well one of the core fundamentals of strategy is choice, so I wanted it to be a short list. And therefore I present to you the 10 5 commandments of strategy.
Thou shall not take strategy’s name in vain
Thou shall force thyself to choose
Thou shall differentiate and not blindly copy your competitor’s strategy
Thou shall resource and rigorously execute your strategy
Remember the strategy day, to keep it holy
Commandment #1: Thou shall not take strategy’s name in vain
Not everything requires strategy. Some things require a simple plan.
Semantic Satiation is a psychological phenomenon wherein a word (temporarily) loses its meaning when repeated over and over again. I believe something similar is happening with “Strategy”.
Strategy is probably one of the most overused or abused words at the workplace. You often hear things like, what is our strategy for this meeting or what is our strategy to solve this issue. The other day I nearly toppled over when a friend asked me what is your lunch strategy!!
One of the X factors of Strategy as a word is that it can make any mundane or regular task sound cool. So instead of “what is our plan for this meeting” saying “what is our strategy” just makes it sound that much more critical or important!
Ensuring that you are using the word strategy correctly is a start. Not just for the semantics of it but because it guides you as to when you really need a thought-through strategy and when you need just a plan. So my friends, “Thou shall not take strategy’s name in vain.”
Commandment #2: Thou shall force thyself to choose
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do - Michael Porter.
A business is often faced with multiple challenges. Often you would see them trying to solve all challenges at the same time. What does this do? Well, the limited resources of the business are now spread over a wide number of priorities leading to nothing getting done as it just does not have enough force/resource behind it.
Not just that, sometimes even these priorities can be conflicting. I want my business to grow double digits but I also want to cut costs. Well good luck with that! Or else, I want to have short lead times but also very strict inventory targets. Let me know when you solve that one.
It is imperative that the business “chooses” which priorities it wants to address (a short-list) and addresses them coherently (meaning that they should not be in conflict with each other). Also a short-list is easy to communicate, easy to remember and easy to percolate throught the organization.
Most Fortune 500 companies have 3 to 5 strategic priorities
If you don't choose yourself, the world will choose it for you. As most of your initiatives will fail and you would need to wind them down. Therefore, Thou shall force thyself to choose.
Commandment #3: Thou shall differentiate and not blindly copy your competitor’s strategy
Another one of my favourite Porter quotes is “If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful.”
Your competition can inspire you but you need to chart your own path. If all you do is copy your competitors, then you start converging. Result, the customers and the suppliers end up having high power leading to most of the value being consumed by them. And thus, ensues a race to the bottom.
Value creation and differentiation is the essence of modern day capitalism. Strategy is all about choosing a unique path which creates more value for your customers vs your competition. This unique path has inherent risks.
Private enterprise is fundamentally about risk and if you not comfortable with risk you probably should not be engaged in those kinds of endeavours - A.G. Lafley
Copying competitors might look appealing given their success and a comfort knowing that maybe this approach has lesser risk, but in the long term you will be stuck in a loop of being a follower, always trying to catch up. Be inspired by your competition but lead your own way.
Commandment #4: Thou shall resource and rigorously execute your strategy
Strategies which are not resourced are “wish lists.” While there are plenty of bad strategies around, even the good ones do not see the light of the day as they are never truly resourced.
'Approximately 50% strategy implementations are still failing' - Bridges Strategy Implementation Research 2020
Even if a strategy is resourced, execution tracking is key to not only ensure rigorous implementation but to also course correct if actions are not producing intended actions.
Actions need to be tracked regularly anywhere from weekly to monthly. At the same time strategy you should eliminate the colour yellow from tracking. Either you are on track (green) or you are off track (on red). There should be no place to hide!
Your work is not done with just preparation of a good strategy. Thou shall resource and rigorously execute your strategy.
Commandment #5: Remember the strategy day, to keep it holy
In The One-Hour Strategy, Jeroen Kraaijenbrink shares guidance on how often to think about strategy. His suggestion for spending time on strategy -
executives spend one hour a day
managers spend one hour a week
employees spend one hour a month
Just like the mind needs regular meditation, the body needs regular exercise, similarly strategy needs dedicated time for thought and reflection.
Reserve your time for strategic thinking and ensure it is protected. In today’s volatile environment, executives can get sucked in fire-fighting and strategic thinking can take a back-seat. The only way to get around this is, block it in your calendar and make it sacred.
Everyone and everything needs a moment to pause and reflect and Strategy is no different. Thus, Remember the strategy day, to keep it holy.
Follow these 5 commandments of Strategy and I am sure that results will follow for you. Remember to trust the process. It is the process that is under your control, not the end goal.
Well see you next time around. Please do share and drop a comment if you found this interesting :)
I cringe every time I hear about a “strategic plan”.
What does that it even mean!?
Another really great post which many points that hit home hard! A challenge with strategy development is that they're aren't really any widely used benchmarks or well-known criteria for what a good strategy is, so this could be a very useful starting point for many.