Re!nventing Strategy for today’s challenges
This is the first in a series of papers that dives deeper into the specific sections of our recently published paper entitled Accelerating Impact, an integrated approach to Strategy and Value Creation.
Today, we are living in a radically different world to that of even 5 years ago. The pace of change is faster. The expectations of stakeholders and society are greater and more diverse. Our world is becoming even more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
And the old paradigms of longer term strategic planning are no longer valid. It is not possible to plan with a degree of certainty and strategic choices need to be made based upon an acceptance that they could be wrong, but they are, at least, the best that you can make with limited, complex and ambiguous information.
Today, organisations have to manage a new set of tensions and accordingly have to build a new set of capabilities:
1. How to meet financial KPIs whilst also incorporating social and environmental impact objectives
2. How to optimise your Core business whilst exploring new, longer-term horizons
3. How to balance the need for planning and risk management with speed of design and execution
4. How to continuously adapt your competitive position, to gain and maintain a sustainable advantage
… plus many others.
That is why we, at Stratega, believe that Strategy needs to be reinvented. Four things have to be done differently.
Firstly, the entirety of the strategy process needs to be managed as an integrated whole; not as separate disciplines such as Design or Execution or Performance Management; not as separate organisational silos such as innovation or venturing. All elements should be managed in an end-to-end integrated framework.
Secondly, the strategy process needs to be accelerated. Strategy Design needs to become a dynamic process, and it needs to deliver outcomes quicker. The strategy process needs to incorporate the best elements of design thinking, systems innovation, and agile techniques.
Thirdly, time to value needs to be shortened. The strategic realisation phase needs to be more agile and experimental. The strategic portfolio needs to be more fluid so that failures can be faster and new ideas can be fast-tracked quicker.
And fourthly, the notion that a Strategy can be executed needs to be challenged. Rather, the whole notion of delivering a Strategy needs to be turned upon its head. It is actually your Strategic Vision that needs to be realised and your strategy is your way of best realising that. It is a means to an end, not the end in itself.
Stratega is a global Strategy Agency.
We help clients to reinvent their businesses. We develop new corporate-level strategies, we build new innovation platforms and we create and scale new ventures. For info, contact [email protected]
Re!nvent
Act D!fferently
