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Why don’t we have a strategy?

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Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#71

Post by danielvaughn »

dchuk wrote: post #14

The overwhelming majority of “strategies” are just rigid sequences of time bound outputs/shit you want to build, that always end up being wrong and needing to change because of new information coming in. Strategy needs to be: - We’ve identified this deep problem in the world that needs to be fixed - We want to bring the Vision to life where that problem is gone (a big bold future state of the world). - We believe bri…

A major component of a strategy is constraint. In other words, what are you going to give up? If you're going to do All The Things, that isn't a strategy, it's a wishlist. You have to bring constraints into the picture before anything like a strategy emerges.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#72

Post by LaundroMat »

To me, this is too convoluted an explanation...

Strategy implies making choices and trade-offs. Most people are afraid to be held accountable for making real choices (i.e. steering the company/product in one direction and not any other).

That's why most strategies are only strategies by name: fluffy statements that anyone can fill in as they wish ("our strategy is to be our customers' partner") or monetary goals ("our strategy is to be 20% more profitable by end of next year").

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#73

Post by laichzeit0 »

splittingTimes wrote: post #59

I am always missing good, positive examples of what are and _are not_ "Goals", "Stratgies", "Missions", "Visions", "Key Results" etc in those articles. And where to start from and where to go? What is a goal? "Win in the market place" or "Become profitable" No, that is not a real goal. That is pure business survival. "Increase market share by %X." or "Grow our portefolio to enter the premium segment" That sounds more…

As Marc Andreessen said in a recent Joe Rogan podcast the goal of vision is to “form and reinforce the cult”. You need to trick employees into believing in something. Cults and cult leaders are exceptional examples for corporations to learn from.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#74

Post by clairity »

mikkergp wrote: post #29
dchuk wrote: post #14

The overwhelming majority of “strategies” are just rigid sequences of time bound outputs/shit you want to build, that always end up being wrong and needing to change because of new information coming in. Strategy needs to be: - We’ve identified this deep problem in the world that needs to be fixed - We want to bring the Vision to life where that problem is gone (a big bold future state of the world). - We believe bri…

I find the good strategy/bad strategy definition useful, which is essentially, an area of ‘strength’ as to be applied to an area of ‘weakness’ (put in quotes because I think weakness can be replaced with “opportunity” or similar words, but his point is that a good strategy should respect the specific skills of the business/team while also finding some unique space in the market those skills apply. Otherwise “visions”…

that's definitely a good heuristic for finding a strategy. strategies are realistic methods for how you'll achieve a goal without getting into the details of what you will do to get there (that's the plan). in chess, it might be "control the middle" (if you're strong positionally). in basketball, it might be "run and gun" (if your strength is endurance and speed).

it's important to understand that strategy only exists relative to competition. thus a business strategy only exists at the level of a firm, and not a department or a product, because firms compete in markets (for which a firm may produce many products). that also means it doesn't make sense to talk about marketing strategy or product strategy, because those are implementation details of the firm's business strategy. further, firms only have two broad strategic options: differentiaton (compete on quality) or cost (compete on price). within that, they can apply their strengths to tailor their strategy to the firm (our proprietary manufacturing process produces much more consistent and precise tiddlybonks, so we'll compete on quality).

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#75

Post by tibbetts »

dchuk wrote: post #14

The overwhelming majority of “strategies” are just rigid sequences of time bound outputs/shit you want to build, that always end up being wrong and needing to change because of new information coming in. Strategy needs to be: - We’ve identified this deep problem in the world that needs to be fixed - We want to bring the Vision to life where that problem is gone (a big bold future state of the world). - We believe bri…

Finding a big problem is actually optional, and often a distraction. Most companies that are already functioning at scale have plenty of medium sized problems that need strategic fixes. For example “sales aren’t growing in Japan.” Most small companies are happy to stay small and also need only solve medium sized problems. For example “there is no good construction supplies vendor in this geography.” It’s only startups looking for rapid-scaling venture-friendly returns who need a big unsolved problem they can grow into.

Of course, those companies get a whole lot of attention. But Google and Facebook and Twitter don’t need big new unsolved problems. They already picked their big problem, and solved it well enough to get big. Now they need strategies which address the medium sized problems that limit their continued success. When they go looking for big new unsolved problems (I’m looking at you Alphabet and Meta) it’s usually a distraction.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#76

Post by mrhether »

hef19898 wrote: post #8
zabzonk wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or alternatively: "No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy" https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/05/04/no-plan/

Which doesn't mean you can afford to have no plan at all. Because: "Failing to plan means planning to fail".

Such words ring true to everybody who has ever had a chance to experience failure. Proper time management is the key I would say and that's what it's good for and where it fails.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#77

Post by FunnyBadger »

dchuk wrote: post #14

The overwhelming majority of “strategies” are just rigid sequences of time bound outputs/shit you want to build, that always end up being wrong and needing to change because of new information coming in. Strategy needs to be: - We’ve identified this deep problem in the world that needs to be fixed - We want to bring the Vision to life where that problem is gone (a big bold future state of the world). - We believe bri…

Exactly.

If you think "strategy" involves following a simple one-size-fits-all cookbook recipe, you are very deep in the weeks. Sadly that's pretty much what most MBAs get from their MBA program. Rather than the true lessons.

A lot of this is also easier if you are "present" in the now and the world. I don't meet many people who are either.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#78

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I'm a strategic thinker. I have been, almost my entire career. I write software that lasts decades, and have authored systems that took ten years to mature.

The issue is that I have almost never been allowed to express, communicate, or implement my strategies.

"Strategic thinking" is an ego thing. Only "big bosses" are "allowed" to "think strategically." If those of us, down in the trenches, "dare" to think strategically, we're being "uppity."

What a nightmare. At my last company, I foresaw the problems that eventually resulted in the company falling down (and my team being made redundant), at least a decade in advance. I remember being called a "Cassandra," and also being told that it "wasn't specific enough."

For example, when the iPhone first came out, I borrowed one of my employees' new iPhone, and took it up to Marketing. I said "This is gonna be trouble."

I was laughed out of the office.

Ten years later, the company's business was in shambles; almost entirely because smartphones ate their lunch. I remember hearing people whining about "How could we have foreseen this?"

These days, I write software on my own. I don't have anyone telling me "Go away kid, yer bodderin' me."

It's been working well.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#79

Post by thenerdhead »

A strategy is nothing more than repeated steps that provide you a certain outcome. If you don't get the outcome you desire, you change up your strategy until you do. Simple as that.

Good strategy / Bad strategy covers this a bit further in more technical terms of a diagnosis, kernel, and coherent actions.

Everyone has a strategy, even if you don't think so. Being aware and having enough clarity to communicate your strategy is another thing entirely in which I think this article is trying to point out.

It feels a bit meta to talk about not having a strategy if you can't even define the word. Rumelt's definition is of a "good strategy". You can have bad strategies or no strategies too! I mean that was the other half of the book.

Re: Why don’t we have a strategy?

#80

Post by jamiek88 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #53

There is an old engineer quote that appears a couple times in my newest book, where at 3Com the Microsoft LAN Manager alliance and OS/2 were considered "strategic," as was the Bridge acquisition: "Strategic" means "you don't make any money." So yeah, we were all deeply cynical about that word, because it means, all too often, the inchoate wishes that MBAs throw onto a bunch of slides. I'm all in favor of a really wel…

Was Android strategic for google or just reaction to an existential threat?
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