and how you can use them to create organizational focus
There are three common mistakes business leaders make concerning strategy: 1) confusing tactics for strategy; 2) equating operational efficiency with strategy; and 3) lacking total commitment to a strategy. Our next few posts will delve into the elements of business strategy and why it is so important to the short– and long–term success of your enterprise.
Adding to the confusion and difficulty of committing to a well- defined strategy is the immediacy brought on by the electronic age. In a mechanized world, systems were closed, linear, and in direct relation to one another. Most c-level executives cut their teeth in such an environment.
The electronic age ushered in demands for a new and unusual organizational elasticity that is responsive to continuously changing market and competitive conditions. Decades of emphasizing specialized training and teaching for specific functions along with the siloed structuring of data and communications are giving way to instantaneous access to information and cross-functional work groups. The assembly line and traditional perspectives on the division of labor have morphed into holistic, fully integrated, and surprisingly organic ways of looking at the organization.
All of which serve to underscore the importance of strategy. But what is strategy and how does one go about designing and executing a sustainable business strategy?
In a business context, strategy is a plan for achieving specific short– and long–term goals and objectives in order to obtain a distinct overall advantage that produces sustained, optimized profits. Note the inclusion of both short– and long–term.
According to Michael Porter, of the Harvard Business School, “One implication is that strategic positions should have a horizon of a decade or more, not of a single planning cycle. Continuity fosters improvements in individual activities and the fit across activities, allowing an organization to build unique capabilities and skills tailored to its strategy. Continuity also reinforces a company’s identity.”
Porter emphatically points out the value positioning plays in the strategic process, despite contemporary arguments to the contrary. Because of the inherent immediacy driving business in the electronic age, it is tempting to dismiss positioning as a relic of mechanization. After all, as the argument goes, “a nimble enterprise cannot grow and prosper by establishing a static, inelastic position in the marketplace.”
Clearly, accelerated time-to-market and technological advances make it easier to copy successful business models and thus, render them seemingly temporal. But this thinking equates operational efficiency with strategy. Nearsighted executives who fall prey to this deception eventually find themselves locked in a perpetual “Sisyphus mode”. Laboriously pushing a rock up the hill but never reaching the top. Or, futilely attempting to glom onto every new idea that comes down the pike only to discover after expending precious time, money, and resources that the idea doesn’t fit within their organizational framework.
Positioning based on distinct values and ways of doing things overcomes such paralyzing and destructive practices — which is why MindMeld works with organizations to carefully craft and instill precise and genuine operating principles that guide every facet of the organization’s operations. We begin with the four key elements of a sound and scalable business strategy:
- Vision
- Purpose
- Values
- Methods / Processes
In subsequent posts we will unpack how you can utilize these four key elements of business strategy to gain a lasting competitive advantage. The process is uncomplicated but requires a great deal of honesty, persistence and most of all, a willingness to view things from the clients’ perspective.
About MindMeld: Our vision is that your business will grow, prosper, and make a positive and lasting impact on the world. We accomplish this vision by helping you discover and communicate the value of your products and services and capitalize on that value. To learn more please contact me at doug.knuth@mindmeldmarketing.com.
© copyright 2015, Doug Knuth, MindMeld Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.