Strategy

Tactical Thinking – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

by

Tactical thinking is characterized by making in-the-moment decisions without regard to the overall strategic plan. Most often, this occurs because demands of the day overwhelm the needs of the future requiring a temporary shift in prioritization. This happens in every organization on a daily basis. The key word here is “temporary”. A critical success factor […]

Five Attributes of Strategic Thinkers

by

In today’s agile, fast-twitch, act-fail-iterate environment, strategic thinking often gets a bad name. One entrepreneur friend of mine told me: “Strategic thinking is just an excuse to slack off.” If you are an internet startup, have  little revenue, and no profits, then keep iterating through tactical options until you succeed – or fail. For the […]

Strategy and Tactics – Two Sides of the Same Coin

by

Mike correctly pointed out in his comment to my last post, Strategy By Any Other Name, that I didn’t address the difference between strategy and tactics. Well let’s take a look now. First, I think there are really two questions here. One is “What is the difference between strategy and tactics.” and the other is […]

A Strategy by Any Other Name

by

What is strategy? That question pops up a lot and everyone seems to have an answer. Just not the same answer. However, one thing is clear. Most people and I mean truly smart people often get strategy wrong. So wrong in fact that that many executives give up on strategy altogether. I once was in […]

Implementing Organizational Structure and Focus

by

When I joined the IT Department at the American University of Sharjah as the Director, I was presented with an organizational structure challenge.  I found out that I had 21 direct reports and that my department did not have a concept of operational management!  I had just come from being the Manager, Business Application Services […]

The post Implementing Organizational Structure and Focus appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

www.forbes.com: outside-in & competitiveness

by

“.. Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati writes:

Those companies built around an inside-out mind-set—those pushing out products and services to the marketplace based on a narrow viewpoint of their customers that looks at them only through the narrow lens of their products—are less resilient in turbulent times than those organized around an outside-in mind-set that starts with the marketplace, then looks to deliver creatively on market opportunities. Outside-in orientation maximizes customer value—and produces more supple organizations. Embracing an outside-in perspective—focusing on creatively delivering something of value to customers instead of obsessing over pushing your product portfolio—builds an inherent flexibility into organizations”.



A paradigm shift in management“Achieving continuous innovation and customer delight lies outside the performance envelope of firms that are built on hierarchical bureaucracy and focused on short-term gains and the stock price. It requires a fundamentally different way of leading and managing—in effect, a paradigm shift in management. It means:
  • a shift from controlling individuals to self-organizing teams;
  • a shift from coordinating work by hierarchical bureaucracy to dynamic linking;
  • a shift from a preoccupation with economic value to an embrace of values that will grow the firm; and
  • a shift from top-down communications to horizontal conversations”.

Full article here.


My thoughts:  A focus on Values beyond economic value alone, Trust & Policies: Trust-relationships with employees and simple, straight forward policies, that together encourage  self-organizing teams and horizontal conversations. The company as a Complex Adaptive system.