Strategy: Leadership through strategy

Strategy, when we hear, read and speak this word, what comes in our mind at first? One of my professional & academic difficulties that I often face is that the word strategy is grossly misunderstood, used inappropriately and sometimes totally in wrong context.?In the world of smartness where context is the king and brevity of content is the queen, the word “Strategy” has been in-fashion with majority of educated community across the globe. Nearly all of us wish to be strategic, work & perform strategically and become strategist. Over the years I have come across many different ways in which the words strategy and strategic are used (misused).? Some are confusing & mediocre, some are meaningful & useful and some are insightful.

The key deliverable of a business leadership is to convince stakeholders, owners, board; attract investments & fundings; bring in useful technology & process optimizations; hire right talents, nurture, develop and retain them; lead the chances & promote innovations. Above all, finding pathways of success deeply rooted in a perfect alignment between the reference shareholders, the board and the professional leadership – is the core function of leadership. These all require to craft, curate and cultivate right strategy.

Strategy isn’t about optimizing; it’s not about doing everything either. It’s about choosing what to neglect and avoid. Modern days’ businesses and organizations chase operational excellence in everything they do, diluting their competitive advantages, non-realizing their core strengths and often diverting from their potentials. Strategy, in its truest sense requires the courage to say no to most of the things which do not matter. Deliberately underperforming in area that do not serve the core position and would simply consume most of the precious resources and energy. Strategy is that unique mindfulness to ignore, avoid and forego what do not matter and what would not serve the purpose for future.

In modern days industrial, trade, financial and technological environment – vibes and whims have been becoming more prominent in the board and top leadership level. Decisions in investments, business expansion, startups are being made in individual or group of individuals gut-feelings. In the process of hiring talents, where hiring manager’s vibes are getting more weightage than candidate’s hard-earned experiences, expertise skills, valuable mindset and developed insights. These are setting wrong trend and could be counter valuable for businesses and industries ahead in time. That is the reason why mindfulness of strategy matter and would continue to play critical role for organizations’ existence, growth and future survival.

The word Strategy (Noun), Strategic (Adjective) and Strategically (Adverb) - guiding through our strategy, let’s be ‘Strategic’ and talk ‘strategically’. Here in this article, my intention is to present the clarity of the word #strategy in organizational and leadership context.

The genesis and transition of strategy:

The origins of the word strategy find it’s root from the ancient Greece. The Greek back then in those time-line used it in below three contexts: ?

1. Stratēgós:?“A general, the leader or commander of an army”.
2. Stratēgéō:?“To be a general, command an army”.
3. Strat?gēma:?“The act of a general, a piece of generalship”.

Over the years, the meaning and interpretations of the word strategy has derived from those above original sources. However, let us not assume that, because the word derives from ancient Greek, that?the idea of strategy comes also from ancient Greek.? The concept of the strategy was in active usage with the Romans, the ancient Chinese and the ancient Egyptian. ?

The modern concept of strategy has passed through military history to us, and much of our present concepts and thoughts about strategy derived from militarily context which further has been fine-tuned and developed in western business schools and academic literatures and research papers.

Alfred Chandler in the year 1962 in classical definition, says “Strategy is the determination of the basic long-term goals of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals.” Alfred Chandler examined four case studies of then American conglomerates that dominated their respective industries in the 1920’s onward. He brilliantly had described how the chemical manufacturing group Du Pont, the automobile giant General Motors, the hydrocarbon energy company Standard Oil and the department stores chain Sears, Roebuck & Co. developed over time by identifying four sequential stages:

1. Acquisition of resources such as employees and raw materials and the buildup of marketing and distribution channels.
2. Establishment of functional structures to increase efficiency.
3. Adoption of growth and diversification strategy: diversification into new markets and products to overcome limits of the home market.
4. Creation of the then-revolutionary divisional form to manage large conglomerates.

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What is strategy:

An organization comes into existence with strategy, continues to exist with strategy and ceases to exist with strategy.? Choosing the most appropriate approach, which way to go, how to implement and how to learn quickly, in a fast changing, vast challenging, unduly compelling business environment – should aptly be termed as strategy. Guiding pathways of solutions for simplifying complexities in business: strategy.

A strategy for an organization is a framework for making business decisions that encompass plans and tactics. The decisions range from high-level choices like?“How will we differentiate ourselves from the competitors?”?to operational realities like?“How will we buy new raw materials and process them in our production?”

When posed with questions like these, our first response is usually to start listing all activities & considerations needed to complete process tasks. But the process of brainstorming around “the how” isn’t building a strategy—it’s purely a planning. A strategy doesn’t concern itself with the details surrounding executions. A strategy establishes how an organization, an individual or a team plans to win the game. With a right strategy in place, an organization ensures that each of its teams, resources and individuals aligns around cohesive plans that work in support of focusing on big pictures to meet its business objectives.

Strategy is the direction the business should follow, and the tactics you need to take to win the game, to meet your business objectives. It helps you to make smart business decisions and stay focused on what’s most important while using your resources wisely. Strategy is not just about knowing what to do; it’s about knowing why, how, and when to do it. In the world of complex industrial, financial, trade and technological business environment, strategy plays a vital role in organizational survival growth and successful transition. Think of it as a navigation map for your business journey. Like you wouldn’t head out on an unknown location road trip without a map, diving into the business world without a strategy can leave you lost in a sea of chaos and turmoiled waves.

Strategy is the set of objectives and policies which create an organization's competitive edge over its peer companies. It describes the business' clearest direction for near-term growth or future expansions, with a general framework that also provides direction for long-term success. The strategy establishes specific ways to attain the desired future state, whether it be healthy financials, enhanced customers’ satisfactions, improved governance structures, optimized processes of operations and many more.

Strategy, therefore could be understood as the process of interrelating means and ends. Strategy provides a coherent blueprint to bridge the gap between the realities of present of today and a desired future of tomorrow. The soul of strategy is on how the ways, means and ends interact within the environment to affect the desired outcomes.

Strategy is the soul of any organization that aspires to exist long-lasting, remain relevant, continue to be profitable and become future-proof. Consequently, it's critical for leaders to understand what strategic development looks like in their business so they can ensure to align themselves for doing the right things. Often strategically successful businesses are ones that have innovated on creating new customer segments, added on services, innovative products offering and boutique of revenue-path.

Strategy is not planning:

At broader understanding, where the strategy finishes, the planning starts.? While strategy is thoughts, planning is executions of them. Majority of us hold the conviction that a strategy is a plan (which it is certainly not).? I remember, during a master class of leadership, in one of the business schools of global fame, when a discussion came to the term ‘Strategy’, majority of the answers filled-in with “strategy is a plan”.? However, if a strategy is a plan, then what is a strategy?? In certitude, strategy and planning are entirely different. They are two different words, two different terms, two different concepts, and it’s critical for leaders and governing board to understand the difference in organizational context and for leadership practice.

Strategy?is about understanding the environment and making choices about what to do.? Thinking about how, when and where to do things. Strategy is about ideations and thoughts.

Planning?is about making choices about how to use availability of resources and enlisting those actions to undertake to achieve the choices made inside strategy. Planning is about executions of ideas and putting thoughts into actions

As Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter and artist, famously had said, “Our goals can only be achieved through the vehicle of a plan. There is no other route to success.”?

Strategy is not about planning; it is about creating a roadmap for success. It helps businesses navigate complexities, leverage opportunities, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth and profitability. An effective strategy is essential for long-term viability and success in a competitive landscape.

It’s about right strategy and impeccably effective planning – as to sum the factor of organizational success.

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Strategy is not tactics:

Businesses and industries are not chess board game that one can win though tactics. While strategy defines long term objectives, tactics are tasks and activities designed to support short-term goals formed in the overall business strategy and plan. Both strategy and tactics are concepts centered around planning to attain the most desirable outcome possible for the business. The subtle differences between a strategy and a tactics by factors of ‘scale’ and ‘timeline’ are:

Scale: The difference between strategy and tactics is the scale of actions, executions and implementations. Tactics are relatively small. For example, a supply-chain executive or sales assistant may use sales tactics to attempt to influence a customer to buy a product. The sales person may use tactics on a single-interaction basis, which may include such methods as giving out referral codes to drive leads and generate actual sales.

Strategy is the driving factor within an organization over a long period, spanning multiple months or many years. A core strategy is an overall direction that a company is working towards, and tactics are used to serve the business strategy.

Timeline: Another difference between strategy and tactics is timeframe. Tactics are deployed within a relatively short space of time, and the time it takes to implement could be a matter of minutes or hours during a single business interaction. Tactics help achieve small-scale goals and thus require a relatively small-time investment.

Implementing a strategy is indeed a long-term process. This is due to the nature of strategy, which is reliant on collective responses to drive a company to achieve large, long-term goals. For example, a business may implement a strategy to achieve a certain level of profit by the end of the next financial year, or put in place a recruitment strategy to adjust the skill set within the organization. In both of these cases, the strategy is about long-term adjustment rather than short-term shifts.

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Why Strategy matters?

Strategy in an organization, gives a sense of purpose and direction. It provides a vision and keeps people engaged, charged and focused towards organizational goal.

Strategy is an action which leaders undertake to meet business objectives. Creating a business strategy guides leaders in what they will be doing long-term and gives them a set of business principles which lead to well-informed decisions-making. As markets become more competitive, an effective strategy gives a business its edge and sits at the core of its success.

Strategy is a method of long-term planning and directing operations to achieve an end goal. Strategy is essential to business performance. Strategic direction is detailed in a plan containing specific objectives and performance metrics. Business goals are primarily driven by growth to create value for the company, its stakeholders, customers, vendors and employees, and are focused on building revenues.

As Victor Hugo, the French ‘champion of egalitarian rights and abolition of the death penalty’, had profoundly said, “Where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” It’s all about well-thought, rightly aligned, nicely crafted strategy which would guide the organization to future.

An organization’s survival entirely depends on its ability to grow, evolve, change, adapt and accept. Sans, strategy, the organization would rely on luck and chances, while with the right strategy, an organization would navigate through the complexities and continue to survive and grow. Strategies guide organizations toward their goals and help them navigate tough decisions in ultra-complex, ever-dynamic and fast-changing market conditions. Organizations that invest in developing robust, real-time data-backed organizational strategies will enjoy more steady growth and be well-positioned to capitalize on emerging growth opportunities.

Strategy isn’t a skill to learn and perfected in short-time. This isn’t a piece of information or a body of knowledge that can be taught and imparted in technology institute and business school. Strategy is a mindfulness, deeper-insights, fine-sense, which require constant courtship and committed practices to master upon and get into perfections. A specialty skill, a distinctive mindset and super sensibility and focused area of core for an individual and a team to lead the organization through strategy.