Formulating a business strategy is essentially about making choices that will give you confidence that you’ll achieve a challenging goal which, if you’re intent on being the “best” in your class, that might be achieving an industry-leading ROIC from having created a sustainable competitive advantage. Of course, nothing is sustainable forever which is what makes formulating strategy a “forever” job of management.
Continue reading “Visually Thinking about Strategic Intent”Tag: strategy
Keys for Driving Your Innovation Potential
I can say with confidence based on more than 30 years of research involving both desktop analytics and face to face interviews with practitioners that THE difference between the industry leading firms and the rest of the pack is NOT superior operational efficiency (although that is at a high level) it is a superior business model. Continue reading “Keys for Driving Your Innovation Potential”
Soft is Hard and Hard is Soft
Peters and Waterman published In Search of Excellence in 1982. It had a profound impact on the direction of my life but that’s not important. What is important is the 7-S model that they revealed in that publication remains today, one of the mainstay’s of the McKinsey consulting methodology. Continue reading “Soft is Hard and Hard is Soft”
If You Want to Break From The Pack, Innovation is the Key
As I prepare material for our up-coming Practice Innovation Workshops I’ve been doing a lot of research into the process of creative idea generation (specifically how to teach it and how to implement it) because at the end of the day that’s what ultimately gives business enterprises (and that includes accounting firms and their clients) a competitive edge. Continue reading “If You Want to Break From The Pack, Innovation is the Key”
Why Strategy Matters
I’m told the word “compete” has its roots in the Latin phrase con petire which means “to seek together.” That sounds at odds with the contemporary use of the word competition but perhaps that’s what it really is all about — seeking to actualize your potential by testing yourself against the best opposition. It’s not about winning, it’s about realizing your potential and if you’re not winning you know you have a way to go but in the process you are always winning because you’re moving towards the realization of your potential. Continue reading “Why Strategy Matters”
What Matters Most in a Leader
I was on a website the other day that focused on leadership and what team members considered to be the most important things that influenced their confidence in their leaders. The question was asked: what matters most to you in a leader? Continue reading “What Matters Most in a Leader”
Strategy in times of rapid change
A typical definition of the word strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a vision, the two key words being “plan” and “vision”. I’ve been talking about strategy a lot lately because I believe the lack of a coherent strategy is the barrier that prevents firms from achieving their full potential. They either lack a vision, they lack a plan of action or they lack both. In other words they lack a strategy. Continue reading “Strategy in times of rapid change”