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Strategy – who knows best?
September 9, 2009 | 3 Comments
Through the years writing and executing strategies has been an integral part of my career. And through the years, I have always wondered what the best approach is. I can say I still do not know!
I know that when I have developed a new strategy I take an in-depth approach resulting in short, medium and long-term approach. For strategy reviews it was mostly focused on the coming year and assessing whether the set strategies were still sound. I have worked with specialist consultants in revitalising strategies, rebranding strategies and more. I have worked on strategies within strategies and yet I still cannot say what is best! I know what I do works for me, but could I be doing better – most likely. I believe we always can learn and grow no matter how old or experienced.
I have read about the Welch Way and love the way he simplifies what is often complicated in theoretical works. Does his way work for others, as we all have different styles?
The steps in my in depth process is as follows:
1. Determine the purpose and background of the strategy
2. Assess the current situation: consider the company, market, industry and competitors.
3. SWOT Analysis: I still like to use the traditional SWOT
4. Issue Analysis: I look at the issues faced that need to be considered or resolved
5. Objectives and Goals to be achieved
6. Key Strategies separated into short, medium and long term
7. Tactical Strategy how the key strategies will be achieved
8. Action Plan to execute strategies using a similar approach to projects
9. Budgets
10. Controls and Contingencies: How we are going to monitor the action plan and any problems we may foresee, possible constraints and risks.
Not everyone goes into this depth. I have worked at a group and seen simple strategies from businesses owned by the group and they do work, however they are usually short term focused. As simple as Jack Welch portrays his method I have no doubt a lot of work goes into it.
What I would like to know is how other people and businesses approach strategy. What works for you?
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Thanks for that information Brian, I will certainly have a look at their site.
One of he best strategy frameworks i have come across is provided by the 280group.com have a look at their site. i believe they give a global overview and a lot of what is being discussed here is well defined there. There also some gaps that can be filled in by it.
I rinse and repeat this with all my clients with outstanding results.
I think what you outlined above is a nice high level framework for defining a strategy and can really be applied to defining almost any type of strategy, in any industry and at any level of an organization. I think the challenge of strategy is how you apply a framework such as this in the context of the organization the strategy is being defined for.
However, to add onto your framework I think there is another component often forgotten when discussing strategy; an organization’s operational strategy. This component is just as critical, as organizations have to ensure operational effectiveness in order to be able to execute and achieve the defined strategy and maintain