Perspective:

So what is strategy (actually)

We all know those two clichés about the elephant, the first about its encounter with some blind men (1,190,000 hits in Google) and the second about it being in the room (69,700,000 hits).

The reason sayings become cliché is that they highlight truths in such a compelling way that, for a time at least, we get a kick out of passing them on. Though in the process we run the risk of losing the impact of the truth.

Here is an elephant cliché story about some leaders who were all doing strategy. Even those who thought they weren’t, were, as ‘no strategy’, is one. No-one really knew what strategy was, beyond a vague notion that Greeks did it and it was important for success. Then some academics and consultants studied it. They each saw quite clearly what it was and wrote heaps about it. But of course there are none so blind as those who will not see. So they argued with each other and fell into the first cliché. The situation persisted for decades until it became the second.

Along came three wise men, Henry Mintzberg, with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Llampel,  who looked from afar and wrote a book offering a full picture of strategy.  In the book they described ten schools of strategy, five facets and four main approaches.  In their writing they left room for the beast to develop and grow.

They defined strategy in five facets:

  1. The Plan: How you formulate what you intend to do.
  2. The Pattern: What you actually did, of failed to do, either deliberately or following your nose.
  3. Position: the location of the products you create in the markets in which you operate.
  4. Perspective: Your fundamental way of doing things.
  5. The Ploy: A specific manoeuvre intended to outwit your competition.

By plotting the first four approaches against each of other in a matrix the writers defined four basic approaches to creating and executing strategy.

The discussion and implementation of strategy leads to a knife edge.  Within every advantage in the strategic approach, there lies a trap to for the unwary.

 

  • Strategy sets direction and keeps the organisation cohesively on track. But strategy can also be a set of blinkers which prevent an organisation from seeing the changes and learning to adapt to the new environment.
  • Strategy focuses effort, preventing the chaos that happens as people pull in different directions. But focus can lead to groupthink.
  • Strategy defines the organisation, providing a short hand to define and distinguish the organisation. But sharp distinctions may be based on over-simplification and loss of understanding of the rich complexity on which the organisation really is distinguished, leading to a thin stereotyping.
  • Strategy provides consistency to reduce ambiguity and provide order. Your strategy is a theoretical structure, a representation of reality, to simplify and explain your world and against which you can initiate actions. However simplification comes at the cost of detail and creativity thrives on inconsistency and the unexpected combination of details.
You can read the full article here.

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Technique

Fourteen keys to success at Apple

How many core values guide you?  We have all done those strategy workshops when the facilitator says that our core values should not be more than four or five. But here are fourteen for Steve Jobs. And it is interesting that some of the favourites “Passion”, “People” “Service” are not even mentioned but taken for granted.

When asked to describe his most important creation, Jobs replied that it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company was far harder and more important than any of the products created. Time will show how the company will endure and how much Steve Jobs could accomplish in this respect in the decade and some that he had before his untimely death. Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs’ best-selling biography has listed 14 keys to his success that provide compelling material for reflection.  Here is a highly abbreviated version of those keys:

Focus – Relentlessly filter out distractions

Steve Jobs saved the company on his return in 1997, by allowing only four products to be considered, two desktop and two portable.

Simplify – Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Deep, rather than superficial simplicity, requires intimate understanding of the structure of what is created and the process through which it is manufactured. The proposed solution must be irrationally uncluttered and presented with immutable confidence.

End to End responsibility – exhaustive control for absolute perfection

In a world filled with junky devices, inscrutable error messages and annoying interfaces, Apple, with their closed architecture, offers astonishing products and a sublime user experience.

If you are not first, create an offer that makes the first irrelevant

The first iMac could not burn CDs.  Apple responded with an integrated system including iTunes, iTunes Store, and iPod, by far the most advanced tool for buying, sharing, managing and playing music.

Products before Profits – “Don’t Compromise”

The Macintosh was designed to be “insanely great”. The high cost led to Steve Jobs ejection from Apple in 1983. But the Macintosh led the home-computer revolution.

Customers don’t know what they want till we show them

Caring deeply about what customers want is different from continually asking them what they want. Knowing what they want requires intuition and instinct about yet unformed desires.

Bend reality – impossible deadlines lead to extraordinary feats

Steve Jobs demanded that Corning supply “Gorilla glass” screens for iPhone, within six months.  When CEO Wendell Weeks explained they weren’t making glass and did not have the capacity. Jobs stunned him by saying “Don’t be afraid”. Weeks explained that false confidence would not overcome engineering challenges to which Jobs replied “Yes, you can do it. Get your mind around it.” Corning delivered the shipment for the first iPhones in under 6 months.

Impute – presentation drives opinion

People do judge a book by its cover. Impute signals from packaging and design.

iMac was a desktop machine. There were few people that would carry it around. However, the recessed handle on the top of the iMac conveyed a sense of friendly utility to those who may be intimidated by computers, a ‘permission to be touched’.

Push for perfection – ‘implement’ means ‘enough expertise to redesign

Jobs stopped the creation process for each major product and went back to the drawing board because he felt it was not perfect.

Tolerate only “A” players – trust allows conflict and commitment

Jobs was blunt and honest beyond rude. But he had an ability to inspire. In his passion for perfection he prevented the kind of polite culture in which mediocre people felt they could stick around, what he called the ‘bozo explosion’. He had learnt that you don’t have to baby really good people.

Engage face-to-face – converse, think, scribble – ban slide shows

Creativity happens through personal interaction rather than online chat.  Jobs designed the Pixar building so that all everyone had to pass through the central atrium, promoting unplanned encounters. Serendipity sparks magic.

Know both the big picture and the details – strategy and detailed design

Jobs had the ability to envision the overarching strategy as well as the tiniest detail of design. He first saw the personal computer as the digital hub for managing music, video, photos and content and got Apple into the personal device business with iPod and iPad. Then he saw this ‘hub’ moving into the cloud and began building a massive server farm for content. At the same time he agonised over the shape and colour the screws inside the iMac.

Combine Humanities with the Sciences – the essence of applied imagination

Jobs had the intuition to integrate science and engineering towards imaginative business strategy. He was inspired by Edwin Land, creator of Polaroid, who pointed out the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of the Humanities and Sciences.

Stay Hungry and foolish – engage in the adventure

Jobs surfed two great waves emanating from San Francisco. The hippie counterculture and the high-tech hacker culture of Silicon Valley. The business and engineering side of his life he tempered with the hippie, non-conformist. This was the common thread throughout his life.

You can read the article here.

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A small adventure

A pine forest painting

Here is a painting of the pines near the Elgin County Club in Grabow.  Rather than sleep in the cottages I chose to sleep under the trees which brought back some interesting memories.

The painting was done on the afternoon we arrived, looking through the forest towards the dam.

This is 380x280mm and is painted on Arches 300gm Cold Pressed.

You can read more about this painting, and see the other paintings I created on the weekend on my watercolour site.

 

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At StrategyWorks we assist leaders and their teams, with those crucial conversations for clarity, decisions, action and outcomes.  These conversations can be frustrating when people are not heard, the team cannot make decisions or the way forward remains vague.  Leaders contact us at StrategyWorks when they are ready to do something different.  In the process those involved in the conversations feel understood and challenged.  At the end of the intervention, the leaders and their teams feel focused and released around a clear plan of action.

Find out more from our website at: www.strategyworks.co.za or better still contact us at the email address: stephen@strategyworks.co.za to arrange a meeting with Stephen.

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© 2012 Stephen Quirke, All rights reserved.  You are free to use material from this Conversaction newsletter in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.  The attribution should read:  ”By Stephen Quirke of StrategyWorks.  Please visit Stephen’s web site at https://www.strategyworks.co.za/ for more resources on how to hold effective conversations in your organisation.” (Please make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)

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