What does “the practice of strategy” look like at your company? Who does it? How and when do they do it? How is it organized? What difference does it make? How is it changing?
For too many companies, the answers are unclear, and the practice is a bit mysterious. Or the answers are clear, but the results are insufficient.
The emergence of strategic capability in a company usually begins with the founders/owners, but in the early days it is understandably limited to the near-term success of the initial offering and immediate survival of the firm. At some point it becomes necessary and appropriate to develop a longer-term perspective on the business opportunity and how best to pursue it. This expression of strategy then drives annual planning, resource allocation, organizational performance objectives, roadmaps, strategic partnerships, etc.
Strategy in the Post-Startup Era
Often the responsibility for developing and expressing strategy falls to an emerging executive team. This collaboration has the theoretical benefit of a broader perspective and better familiarity with the company’s operating challenges. If the founder is a serial entrepreneur, the executive team may also counter-balance an inclination to lose interest and move on to the next great idea.
But there are no guarantees that a robust practice of strategy will emerge. In fact, there are a number of ways for things to go sideways. These include:
- The urgent tyrannizes the important. At the individual or team level, the time required to practice strategy is not protected. Strategy work is left undone, or done poorly, or takes too long to serve the organization.
- The practice lacks intentional design and appropriate resources. While there is benefit to collaboration in developing and expressing strategy, someone needs to play a leadership role in defining the process and outputs of the practice.
- Team members lack commitment and/or experience thinking at the business level rather than a functional level – and are not incented to invest in their growth in this area.
- The practice fails to generate clear direction for the business. Strategy that doesn’t drive execution – through planning, prioritization, and portfolio management – will produce those infamous 3-ring binders gathering dust on book shelves.
Building Capability with Intention
To avoid these pitfalls, here are some principles to follow to develop robust Strategy Capability in an organization. Like most good things, it takes time, intention, and practice.
- Define roles and responsibilities for the team as a whole and individual members specific to the Strategy domain. Someone with the appropriate skills and temperament should be appointed the “practice leader.” Determine whether a distinct functional entity is necessary to supplement the executive team.
- Build discipline into the practice in terms of time commitment, attitude, and growth for individual team members. Think of it as a fitness routine and design the practice to account for progress in Strategy Capability.
- Put stakes in the ground in terms of the quality of output from the team, and align incentives of the participants.
- Ensure the connection between the practice of strategy and the execution/operation of the business. Outputs from the strategy function should be inputs to the broader management and planning teams.
- Anticipate the evolution of the strategy through additional learning and feedback from the markets you serve.
Have you seen strategy practiced well? Please share your thoughts.
Strategy, Creativity, and Leadership 