The strategy discipline addresses the positioning and posture of an enterprise in the marketplace so as to gain competitive, collaborative, and cooperative advantage, and to achieve performance excellence. It has both long-term and short-term components, as determined by aspirations and near-term vision. Strategy is a journey from a point of departure to a point of arrival, whether planned or unplanned.
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To
formulate and deploy strategy, the management of an
enterprise must develop aspirations that establish
direction for the long-term, and a reasonably achievable
vision for the near-term. Even the achievement of near-term
vision has both short-term and long-term components.
Short-term components consist of "quick hits" that can be
addressed immediately. They are consistent with the vision,
even though some rework may be required in the future.
Therefore strategy is not just about the long-term, but
also about positioning that can make a difference over
time.
Values and guiding principles should always be developed first because all downstream activities are dependent upon them. Values provide the basis for how the employee, customer, supplier, investor, regulator, and competitor constituencies are to be treated.
In entrepreneurial enterprises, a vision statement is developed as the ideas for products and/or services emerge. A mission statement may be developed later as the emerging products and/or services are transformed into the enterprise. Value proposition statements for both the enterprise and its products and/or services add specificity as to the benefits and features offered.
Institutional enterprises have a track record. Therefore, the development, enhancement, or maintenance of a mission statement will usually precede the development of a vision statement. It is a long process for an institutional enterprise to change its mission, and extensive planning, policy development, and communications are necessary.
For example, IBM has made a transition over time from being a "computer company" to a "provider of business insight and information technology solutions, which include hardware, software, and services."
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The
aspirational statements provide the foundation for industry
position and posture. Thus the competitive position and
posture in selected markets with specific products and/or
services can be determined. The performance improvement
component of strategy sets the agenda for continuous
improvement between breakthroughs through repositioning,
restructuring, and reengineering activities. These
activities address both revenue increase and cost and
expense reduction opportunities aimed at excellence.
Strategy is further elaborated in constituency-based
objectives, goals, and strategic initiatives that form the
basis for collaborative and cooperative relationships.
Strategic plans are translated into tactical functional
plans that lay out the steps for the achievement of both
short-term and long-term vision.
Breakthroughs arise from cultivating innovation. They
rarely result from planned events, but rather unexpected
events including competitive moves. In fact, breakthroughs
often occur right after the strategic plan has been
finalized, when the planning team steps back and looks at
its work holistically. Hence the plan is a living document,
and must include a process for updates.
The time frame required for new innovations and
technologies to fully mature and be common in the
marketplace is about ten-to-fifteen years. For example,
debit cards, mobile phones, personal computers, and even
the internet have taken at least a decade to become widely
accepted and used.
Hence aspirations should be set over ten-to-fifteen years,
with a near-term vision over a three-to-five year period
for the achievement of realistic and reachable results.
When management divides time frames for strategic plans
into three-to five-year chunks, the likelihood of success
increases. With technology rapidly changing the methods by
which business is conducted, even five years can be a long
time. Therefore one-to-three years may be best in highly
technological environments. However, management may be
surprised at how long it really takes to develop new
products and/or services, and for the marketplace accept
them.
Most major product development projects run behind
schedule. For example, the projects to develop the Airbus
A380 and Windows Vista both delivered results much later
than anticipated. Both the projects and the products were
extremely complicated. Many software products have to
migrate through several rewrites until they are usable by
the community-at-large. These rewrites are necessary
because of the difference between the process-orientation
of the developers and the people-orientation of the users,
which affects usability.
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The
strategy formulation process begins by rolling back the
aspiration to the present. That means starting with the
end-game - the aspiration itself, and management's first
thoughts on getting there from the present.
Starting from the first point of departure, a strategic
plan targets a point of arrival three-to-five years out.
Quick hits should be identified from the point of departure
to one-to-three years out.
The actual point of arrival will most likely differ from
the planned point in terms of what is delivered and when.
However, management can determine from that point of
departure what the characteristics of the next point of
arrival will be.
As new information about constituency preferences emerges,
and as high order effects kick-in, mid-course corrections
will be necessary, sometimes causing the original point of
arrival to be abandoned. Therefore the strategy has to be
enhanced or maintained, and perhaps even redeveloped.
Higher order effects are events or situations that could
not have been envisioned or anticipated at the point of
departure, but impact the point of arrival. They arise from
competitive, economic, environmental, political,
regulatory, social, and technological issues. Higher order
effects often reveal where the real opportunities or
threats lie.
For example, in the financial services industry, changes in
regulation have enabled what was North Carolina National
Bank to become one of the largest financial institutions in
the world, now as Bank of America Corporation. It traveled
from point-to-point through time, taking advantage of
changes in the economic and regulatory conditions. It had a
breakthrough when it found a way to enter the Florida
market, thus opening possibilities that led to national
expansion over time.
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Formulating and deploying strategy from point to point is an enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership, and management) competency.
...and to assess your enterpriship competencies in thirty
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From Nigel A.L. Brooks
http://www.nigelalbrooks.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nigel_Brooks
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32323345/Strategic-Positioning-From-Point-to-Point
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