"This esoteric strategizing - this misplaced obsession with credibility, this dangerously expansive concept of what constitutes security-which has afflicted both Democratic and Republican administrations, and both liberals and conservatives, is the antithesis of statecraft, which requires discernment based on power, interest, and circumstance. It is a stance toward the world that can easily doom the United States to military commitments and interventions in strategically insignificant places over intrinsically trivial issues. It is a stance that can engender a foreign policy approximating paranoia in an obdurately chaotic world abounding in states, personalities, and ideologies that are unsavory and uncongenial-but not necessarily mortally hazardous."
Benjamin Schwartz, The Real Cuban Missile Crisis, The Atlantic, Jan-Feb 2013
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, September 26, 2011
Elders Better at Strategy
USA: Elders better at strategy, shows study
LONDON, England / Daily Mail / News / September 23, 2011
Why you really SHOULD listen to your elders:
Study shows old people really do have more wisdom
By Daniel Bates
It is what people of a certain age will say they have always known.
Experience makes us wise, research shows. Men and women of at least 60 years old are better at making decisions which will reward them in the long term.
Those in their 20s and 30s, however, are interested only in instant gratification and cannot see the benefits of planning.
Read More
Scientific Article
Well, maybe there is still hope for me.
LONDON, England / Daily Mail / News / September 23, 2011
Why you really SHOULD listen to your elders:
Study shows old people really do have more wisdom
By Daniel Bates
It is what people of a certain age will say they have always known.
Experience makes us wise, research shows. Men and women of at least 60 years old are better at making decisions which will reward them in the long term.
Those in their 20s and 30s, however, are interested only in instant gratification and cannot see the benefits of planning.
Read More
Scientific Article
Well, maybe there is still hope for me.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers...Not!
Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers: To really win their loyalty, forget the bells and whistles and just solve their problems
Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman and Nicholas Toman, Harvard Business Review, July - August 2010
The subtitle to this article summarizes the problem I have with it. They have equated delight with bells and whistles. This may be the way delight is interpreted in today's business world, but it's a far cry from the way we defined delight in 1994.
"Would you rather be satisfied or delighted? Which do you think your customers would prefer? Chances are that you answered "Delighted" in both cases. The reason for this lies deep in the meanings of the two words. To be satisfied means to have desires and expectations filled. It literally means to have an end put to a desire, want, or need. Who really wants an end put to their desires? The word satisfy comes from the same root as sad and sated, which is what you become if you have all your desires satisfied.
To be delighted is to take joy or pleasure in something. The word has an element of surprise in it. To be delighted is to be provided with something that you may want or need, but not consciously perceive or expect. Delighted comes from the same root as delicious and delectable, words we associate with food. Wouldn't most of us rather have a delicious meal than one that merely satisfies our body's needs?" Paul Schumann and Donna Prestwood, Innovate!, McGraw-Hill, 1994
We have really muddled up our language with respect to satisfaction, desire, expectation, requirement and delight - important concepts with respect to customers, stakeholders and employees.
In the second part of the subtitle, the authors call for solving customer's problems. This is good, but it doesn't go far enough.
The power of the concept of delight is that it is continuous. You never reach that goal.
"What delighted customers yesterday becomes today's floor, or basis for mere satisfaction. This is the real continuous improvement process which must be rigorously followed, for it results in improved effectiveness, whereas what today passes as "continuous improvement" only addresses improved efficiencies and never questions effectiveness." Innovate!
Not only is it a process, it encompasses business development.
"Not only is delight a process, it is also a continuum; what delights one set of customers may not even be accepted by others, and may be actively rejected by still others. Which customer type you focus on to delight depends on your business strategy. Whether you are trying to hold on to market share, increase market share, or create new markets determines the focus of the organization's innovation activities, and consequently which customers get delighted." Innovate!
If you'd like to read the chapter on delight from Innovate!, click here. Please remember that this was written in 1994 so the references and examples are out of date.
Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman and Nicholas Toman, Harvard Business Review, July - August 2010
The subtitle to this article summarizes the problem I have with it. They have equated delight with bells and whistles. This may be the way delight is interpreted in today's business world, but it's a far cry from the way we defined delight in 1994.
"Would you rather be satisfied or delighted? Which do you think your customers would prefer? Chances are that you answered "Delighted" in both cases. The reason for this lies deep in the meanings of the two words. To be satisfied means to have desires and expectations filled. It literally means to have an end put to a desire, want, or need. Who really wants an end put to their desires? The word satisfy comes from the same root as sad and sated, which is what you become if you have all your desires satisfied.
To be delighted is to take joy or pleasure in something. The word has an element of surprise in it. To be delighted is to be provided with something that you may want or need, but not consciously perceive or expect. Delighted comes from the same root as delicious and delectable, words we associate with food. Wouldn't most of us rather have a delicious meal than one that merely satisfies our body's needs?" Paul Schumann and Donna Prestwood, Innovate!, McGraw-Hill, 1994
We have really muddled up our language with respect to satisfaction, desire, expectation, requirement and delight - important concepts with respect to customers, stakeholders and employees.
In the second part of the subtitle, the authors call for solving customer's problems. This is good, but it doesn't go far enough.
The power of the concept of delight is that it is continuous. You never reach that goal.
"What delighted customers yesterday becomes today's floor, or basis for mere satisfaction. This is the real continuous improvement process which must be rigorously followed, for it results in improved effectiveness, whereas what today passes as "continuous improvement" only addresses improved efficiencies and never questions effectiveness." Innovate!
Not only is it a process, it encompasses business development.
"Not only is delight a process, it is also a continuum; what delights one set of customers may not even be accepted by others, and may be actively rejected by still others. Which customer type you focus on to delight depends on your business strategy. Whether you are trying to hold on to market share, increase market share, or create new markets determines the focus of the organization's innovation activities, and consequently which customers get delighted." Innovate!
If you'd like to read the chapter on delight from Innovate!, click here. Please remember that this was written in 1994 so the references and examples are out of date.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
SWOT Plus
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Plus Scenarios
A SWOT analysis can be an efficient and effective way to quickly assess the strategic position of an organization or company. In order to be effective and actionable the SWOT analysis needs to be facilitated by an expert armed with a comprehensive perspective. The combination of expertise and perspective enables a SWOT analysis to appear effortless to the participants yet result in significant insights.
Understanding SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a way to utilize the existing knowledge of a team to produce a framework for the development of strategies. It is quick, low cost and can be effective if managed correctly. For small businesses or teams, repeated application of a SWOT analysis may be the only type of strategic analysis required. For larger companies, organizations or highly complex projects, a SWOT analysis is a good way to start a strategic analysis and strategy development project. It can identify the gaps and uncertainties in the existing knowledge base.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths/Weaknesses are internal. Opportunities/Threats are external:
* Strength: a resource or capacity of the organization, company or team that can be used effectively to achieve objectives now or in the future
* Weakness: a limitation, fault or defect of the organization, company or team that will hinder achievement of objectives now or in the future
* Opportunity: any favorable situation present now or in the future in the market
* Threat: any unfavorable situation in the market that is potentially damaging now or in the future
In general, an effective strategy is one that takes advantage of the opportunities, avoids the threats (or turns them into opportunities), builds on the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses (or takes action to eliminate them).
A potential strategy matrix for a simple SWOT analysis would be:
Benefits of a SWOT Analysis
One of the major benefits of a SWOT analysis is that it is scaleable. It can be a small as a couple of people talking about a situation to a multi-month project in a large multinational company. Dr. Ralph Wilson comments in Web Marketing Today, "Restaurants ought to make bigger napkins, since some of the most productive business ideas seem to come to mind over a meal. The SWOT analysis technique lends itself to napkin planning and snapshot insights." Don't stop there though. Use the team and an expert facilitator to get the most benefit from institutional knowledge.
Other benefits include:
* Simplicity: It's simple to the participants. They can grasp the concepts and process easily. And, they almost always enjoy the process. However, the apparent simplicity can belie the underlying complexity utilized by an expert facilitator. A good facilitator manages the complexity necessary for an effective SWOT analysis and makes it appear simple to the participants.
* Low cost: A SWOT analysis can be done internally, but usually internal facilitators lack the experience to manage the complexity and the SWOT analysis becomes simple with less insights as a result.
* Flexibility/ Customizable: The basic SWOT technique can be fashioned to meet individual needs.
* Collaborative: It allows the participation (and hence more likely buy in) of the team. In addition, since it utilizes the whole team, the results are more likely to more accurately represent the real environments.
* Quickness: It can be quick from the napkin example quoted above to a few days or weeks. However, it is also possible to use the framework over more extended periods of time if the situation warrants it.
* Integrateable: A SWOT analysis is easily integrated with other strategy and planning techniques. It is a great way to start an even more elaborate strategy and planning project.
Guidelines for an Effective SWOT Analysis
Some guidelines for an effective SWOT analysis:
* Be comprehensive: As this is either the only strategic analysis to be done or the start of a more elaborate strategic analysis, it is imperative that it be done on as broad a base as possible. Keep it broad and open. It can be narrowed later.
* Manage the group dynamics: You want to hear from everyone in an open, collaborative, and creative environment. Don't let group dynamics determine the outcome.
* Keep the thinking straight: The SWOT framework is specifically designed to organize thinking and expand the groups concepts of what's possible. Stay strictly within the framework. Don't muddy what belongs in what category, like calling skills of the engineers an opportunity rather than the strength it is.
* Fight for clarity: Work very hard in the facilitation process to make every statement as clear and unambiguous as possible. As Rashi Glazer, Center for Marketing and Technology, University of California at Berkeley states, " Clarity in strategy works. Fuzzy strategies fail."
SWOT Analysis Process
The process we use involves the following steps:
• Discover the driving forces for change: Collect the available knowledge within the company, organization or team before the facilitation on the social, political, economic, demographic and scientific driving forces for change affecting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. If this knowledge doesn't exist, it would be better to preface the facilitation with a research project to determine these driving forces for change.
* Begin the facilitation with a presentation and discussion of the driving forces.
* Facilitate the group through the SWOT analysis in the following sequence:
1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats
This is usually also the order of difficulty for the group. Strengths are the easiest to think about and threats are the most difficult. We utilize the Innovate! framework for this facilitation.
* Facilitate the group through the development of the desired state they would like to achieve as a result of the implementation of the strategy.
* Work independently to develop four scenarios of potential futures based on the SWOT analysis.
* Present the scenarios to the group and facilitate them in the development of strategies.
* Identify next steps and document the entire process and results.
A SWOT analysis can be an efficient and effective way to quickly assess the strategic position of an organization or company. In order to be effective and actionable the SWOT analysis needs to be facilitated by an expert armed with a comprehensive perspective. The combination of expertise and perspective enables a SWOT analysis to appear effortless to the participants yet result in significant insights.
Understanding SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a way to utilize the existing knowledge of a team to produce a framework for the development of strategies. It is quick, low cost and can be effective if managed correctly. For small businesses or teams, repeated application of a SWOT analysis may be the only type of strategic analysis required. For larger companies, organizations or highly complex projects, a SWOT analysis is a good way to start a strategic analysis and strategy development project. It can identify the gaps and uncertainties in the existing knowledge base.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths/Weaknesses are internal. Opportunities/Threats are external:
* Strength: a resource or capacity of the organization, company or team that can be used effectively to achieve objectives now or in the future
* Weakness: a limitation, fault or defect of the organization, company or team that will hinder achievement of objectives now or in the future
* Opportunity: any favorable situation present now or in the future in the market
* Threat: any unfavorable situation in the market that is potentially damaging now or in the future
In general, an effective strategy is one that takes advantage of the opportunities, avoids the threats (or turns them into opportunities), builds on the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses (or takes action to eliminate them).
A potential strategy matrix for a simple SWOT analysis would be:
Benefits of a SWOT Analysis
One of the major benefits of a SWOT analysis is that it is scaleable. It can be a small as a couple of people talking about a situation to a multi-month project in a large multinational company. Dr. Ralph Wilson comments in Web Marketing Today, "Restaurants ought to make bigger napkins, since some of the most productive business ideas seem to come to mind over a meal. The SWOT analysis technique lends itself to napkin planning and snapshot insights." Don't stop there though. Use the team and an expert facilitator to get the most benefit from institutional knowledge.
Other benefits include:
* Simplicity: It's simple to the participants. They can grasp the concepts and process easily. And, they almost always enjoy the process. However, the apparent simplicity can belie the underlying complexity utilized by an expert facilitator. A good facilitator manages the complexity necessary for an effective SWOT analysis and makes it appear simple to the participants.
* Low cost: A SWOT analysis can be done internally, but usually internal facilitators lack the experience to manage the complexity and the SWOT analysis becomes simple with less insights as a result.
* Flexibility/ Customizable: The basic SWOT technique can be fashioned to meet individual needs.
* Collaborative: It allows the participation (and hence more likely buy in) of the team. In addition, since it utilizes the whole team, the results are more likely to more accurately represent the real environments.
* Quickness: It can be quick from the napkin example quoted above to a few days or weeks. However, it is also possible to use the framework over more extended periods of time if the situation warrants it.
* Integrateable: A SWOT analysis is easily integrated with other strategy and planning techniques. It is a great way to start an even more elaborate strategy and planning project.
Guidelines for an Effective SWOT Analysis
Some guidelines for an effective SWOT analysis:
* Be comprehensive: As this is either the only strategic analysis to be done or the start of a more elaborate strategic analysis, it is imperative that it be done on as broad a base as possible. Keep it broad and open. It can be narrowed later.
* Manage the group dynamics: You want to hear from everyone in an open, collaborative, and creative environment. Don't let group dynamics determine the outcome.
* Keep the thinking straight: The SWOT framework is specifically designed to organize thinking and expand the groups concepts of what's possible. Stay strictly within the framework. Don't muddy what belongs in what category, like calling skills of the engineers an opportunity rather than the strength it is.
* Fight for clarity: Work very hard in the facilitation process to make every statement as clear and unambiguous as possible. As Rashi Glazer, Center for Marketing and Technology, University of California at Berkeley states, " Clarity in strategy works. Fuzzy strategies fail."
SWOT Analysis Process
The process we use involves the following steps:
• Discover the driving forces for change: Collect the available knowledge within the company, organization or team before the facilitation on the social, political, economic, demographic and scientific driving forces for change affecting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. If this knowledge doesn't exist, it would be better to preface the facilitation with a research project to determine these driving forces for change.
* Begin the facilitation with a presentation and discussion of the driving forces.
* Facilitate the group through the SWOT analysis in the following sequence:
1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats
This is usually also the order of difficulty for the group. Strengths are the easiest to think about and threats are the most difficult. We utilize the Innovate! framework for this facilitation.
* Facilitate the group through the development of the desired state they would like to achieve as a result of the implementation of the strategy.
* Work independently to develop four scenarios of potential futures based on the SWOT analysis.
* Present the scenarios to the group and facilitate them in the development of strategies.
* Identify next steps and document the entire process and results.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Five tests of a Good Strategy
From ExecuNet
Some companies are adjusting their strategies to compensate for the current economic conditions, but if "strategy" is the long-term blueprint for an organization, why change it for temporary insecurity?
Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor and leader of the University's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, told the senior-level executive audience at HSM's World Business Forum in late September that many leaders are misinformed about how to develop long-term competitive strategy plans for their companies. They often confuse strategy with some type of action, such as merging, internationalizing or outsourcing. Other flawed concepts are strategy as aspiration (becoming the "tech leader" or to "grow"), and strategy as mission/vision statement. "Companies spend days arguing over which six words go in the sentence. It's a concept. Don't confuse it with strategy," said Porter.
A simple, yet accurate, way to test whether your organization is on the right strategic track is to see if your entire management team would be able to independently articulate the same thing. If they can't, Porter said, you don't have a true strategy.
There are five tests of a good strategy, Porter outlined:
* A unique value proposition. "If you don't have one, you're competing on operational excellence but unlikely to achieve superiority."
* A different, tailored value chain. "If not, you are competing on operational excellence — who can do the same thing better?"
* Clear tradeoffs, and choosing what not to do. "If you choose what to do, you have to also choose what not to do because they are incompatible. It's very hard because tradeoffs limit opportunity."
* Activities that fit together and reinforce each other. Porter said to harness the synergies across the value chain instead of discrete advantages.
* Strategic continuity with continual improvement in realization. "Strategy takes about three years to kick in. If you shift strategy every year, year and a half, you'll never get there."
More
Some companies are adjusting their strategies to compensate for the current economic conditions, but if "strategy" is the long-term blueprint for an organization, why change it for temporary insecurity?
Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor and leader of the University's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, told the senior-level executive audience at HSM's World Business Forum in late September that many leaders are misinformed about how to develop long-term competitive strategy plans for their companies. They often confuse strategy with some type of action, such as merging, internationalizing or outsourcing. Other flawed concepts are strategy as aspiration (becoming the "tech leader" or to "grow"), and strategy as mission/vision statement. "Companies spend days arguing over which six words go in the sentence. It's a concept. Don't confuse it with strategy," said Porter.
A simple, yet accurate, way to test whether your organization is on the right strategic track is to see if your entire management team would be able to independently articulate the same thing. If they can't, Porter said, you don't have a true strategy.
There are five tests of a good strategy, Porter outlined:
* A unique value proposition. "If you don't have one, you're competing on operational excellence but unlikely to achieve superiority."
* A different, tailored value chain. "If not, you are competing on operational excellence — who can do the same thing better?"
* Clear tradeoffs, and choosing what not to do. "If you choose what to do, you have to also choose what not to do because they are incompatible. It's very hard because tradeoffs limit opportunity."
* Activities that fit together and reinforce each other. Porter said to harness the synergies across the value chain instead of discrete advantages.
* Strategic continuity with continual improvement in realization. "Strategy takes about three years to kick in. If you shift strategy every year, year and a half, you'll never get there."
More
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