In an increasingly uncertain environment, articulating a compelling and consistent strategy has become a sizeable challenge. Indeed, how to remain responsive to the changing realities of the market without losing your bearings?
Clarify the fundamentals
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Define your objectives by taking account of uncertainty, e.g. Set intermediary steps to review the situation and update your assumptions.
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Distinguish what might change from what is immutable, e.g. Preservation of unparalleled customer service, the desire to remain a technology leader, etc.
Get people engaged around your strategy
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Appeal to emotions to foster adhesion, e.g. Present the strategy in the form of a story, underline what everyone has to gain, etc.
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Facilitate understanding of the strategy, e.g. Limit yourself to a small number of strategic objectives, be concrete, etc.
Underline the importance of being responsive
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Ask your subordinates to identify the direction the market and competitors are moving, e.g. Are historically marginal competitors gaining in importance?
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Learn to challenge yourself, e.g. Are your past strengths starting to become obsolete?
Take action
Coming up with the worst case scenarios helps to identify and manage potential risk zones.
Through a collective brainstorming, imagine that your company has disappeared, 10 years from now. Perform the reverse analysis: what happened that led to this downfall? E.g.: a new competitor suddenly arriving on the market, a disruptive technology, a reputational scandal.
Broaden the thinking process as much as possible. Explore the full diversity of possible causes, and of the circumstantial sequences of these catastrophic scenarios. Encourage people to consider that what they take for granted may only be a hypothesis. E.g.: quality is our differentiating factor in the market. What if it were no longer valued?
Thus spot the vulnerabilities, and think of the manner in which you could minimize or avoid them.
Ask a few people to reformulate the strategy you have just presented (1h)
Arguments that seem obvious to us might sometimes be difficult to remember or to reformulate.
Ask a few of your team members to explain, in their own words, how they would explain what you presented to a person who was not attending.
Make a note of what impressed them: was the main message they recalled the one you wanted to convey? Was it precise enough to sound right? Did it trigger engagement?
Taking into consideration this feedback, adjust your presentation: can you make it both more synthetic and more concrete / precise / clear? From iteration to iteration, your speech will thus have more impact.
Revisit a strategic hypothesis (30 min)
Over time, we tend to confuse our hypotheses with certainties.
Take a step back from your strategy: on which fundamental hypothèses is it built? E.g.: our market is experiencing weak but sustainable growth; market share is linked to the price/performance ratio; the “last mile” management will make the difference in our industry.
Select a hypothesis and examine it: at what time was this hypothesis formulated and retained? Was there a debate, and if so, what were the different points of view? Would you consider things differently today? Should this hypothesis be proven false, how should the strategy be different?
What indicators could you set up to track the validity of this hypothesis?
Practical Tips
> Some exercises for strategic creativity
> Articulate your strategy clearly and convincingly
Find out more
> The five golden rules of strategic thinking
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