Art of Strategy is a Dynamic Way of Thinking

By gurby1, on June 16th, 2010%

Moltke the Elder cautioned that no plan survives beyond the first round fired at the beginning stages of a campaign.

Clausewitz cautioned that there can never be a fixed methodology or rules that if followed will always deliver success.

John Boyd emphasized a continuous process of analysis and synthesis until novelty and speed in action overwhelms the opponent.

Strategy is in essence a dynamic engagement between thinking humans where maintaining the initiative and focus on the longer term goals  is of utmost importance.

It involves making realistic assumptions and making pragmatic and timely decisions.

It involves analyzing center of gravities, exploiting opportunities and safeguarding the long term interests.

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Strategy is About the Long Run

By gurby1, on June 16th, 2010%

While Innovation creates Value, Entrepreneurship harness that value, it is Strategy that ultimately must sustain that value.

While the decision making process may be in present time, the purpose and rational must be to serve the long run.

It is perfectly normal and is often expected that corporations make the tough decisions of accepting losses or making trade-offs to ensure longer term survivability.

A good strategist must always keep the ends in mind.


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Ends, Ways and Means

By gurby1, on June 14th, 2010%

In essence, Strategy involves adopting some deliberate course of actions to minimize the use of means or Resources and maximize the Ends for the long run.

Where do we start?  In my humble opinion the Ends are the most important. Any corporation or country should not limit its strategy according to current ‘Resources’. What is more important to have clear and ambitious long term goals.

Strategy and Time can help to mitigate the limits of current Resources.

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Context

By gurby1, on June 13th, 2010%

The most important aspect to understanding the Art of Strategy is to accept that no two situations and times can be the same.

Therefore going through Harvard Business School case studies can only provide some management insights but not solutions to your current context and challenges. No two corporations can be identical in terms of their ‘dynamic’ capabilities.

The context should not only be viewed from a perspective of the current dynamic situation but from one that is holistic and always mindful of the longer term implications.

Defining the context is the most important step a strategist must take. It requires detailed analysis and synthesis to fully appreciate the unique context. Mistakes in this analysis can have dire consequences.

Whatever scenario plans that may have been developed in the past needs to be seriously revisited in terms of the assumptions or context. Force fitting a previous scenario plan to the current context due to lack of time can have disastrous consequences.

In this information age, the approach should rather be to continually review the context and make regular assessments on the implications. Only a through analysis will be able to accurately frame the context. An in-depth analysis will be able to elucidate the emerging patterns faster. One needs to be mindful that these patterns need not necessarily arise from the more obvious core business areas.

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Strategy Is

By gurby1, on June 7th, 2010%

Dependent on Context.
Involves knowing accurately all Resources and Ends.
It is not only about current realities but the longer term future.
It is not a fix set of tools or methodologies but a refreshing way of thinking each time.
It is not riskless.
It is continuous and dynamic.
Any aspect can be a strategic issue.
It involves proactive decision making. It needs a deliberate decision and cannot be left to chance.
It often fails because of inaction at a particular time.
It is time dependent and there is a tipping point – key is how to identify the issues and tipping point.
Inaction is an action.
It seldom involves a single point of failure. The issues are always multifaceted and the initiation triggers are more often not core areas.
Borrowing for Napoleon – It requires contemplating all possibilities in detailed.  Involves Dreaming the Problems, Sleeping with it, looking for all angles, including far fetched ideas. Until Novelty emerges.

Borrowing from John Boyd – It involves relentless synthesis and analysis until patterns/solutions emerges.

Involves Emergence of Novel Concept after making numerous  Iterations.

Involves Making the seemingly Impossible, Possible.

Borrowing from Sun Tzu – The Best Strategy is against the Opposing Plans (or context)

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