Most strategies are crap. Most business plans are crap. I have read lots of them. I’ve also developed my fair share (which are obviously much much less crap than the norm :).
Its tempting to think in ‘this ever-changing world in which we live in’ that strategy and the process of strategy development is dead, that there is only tactics. I don’t think that is true, but i think the method of developing strategy needs a kick up the arse.
What is strategy today?:
– Group-think
– Ego-massage (We pay X a lot of money and X wants to do Y)
– Meme copying (hat-tip Simon Wardley)
– Baseless ‘We will’ statements
– Financial cases that prize cost over value
– Complete lack of context
– Little bearing on day to day activity that is undertaken
What should strategy be?:
– Visceral
– Exciting and Scary
– a compelling story
– Contextual
– Lived
– Ironic (in the ‘liberal ironist’ sense)
– Testable
I think this last point is where the first kick in the arse can focus. I think there are things we can learn from ‘Lean startup’, that still aren’t applied to the majority of strategy development. Once i’ve got my thoughts developed on this i’ll share more.
