Below are some of the notes I wrote to myself on the (now old) Turning Strategy Into Results article from MIT Sloan:
Multiple priorities, or “choices”, help focus the company, and work together (instead of conflict) to reinforce one another. A strategy gives guidance, but allows for flexibility (instead of limiting) managers/leaders to handle ad hoc challenges/opportunities.
Companies that have a straightforward strategy might be able to work with a short strategy statement (e.g. that encompass target customer). One approach boils down to basing the strategy on 3 elements: target customers (who), value proposition (what), and how to deliver/sell (how) – this works well for single business companies, with stable strategy.
Companies with multiple target customers, different business units, etc. might not be able to articulate a single strategy for all parts. Multiple businesses, multiple customers, backward/forward -looking strategies usually can’t be simplified this way. Instead, translate the strategy into a medium-term strategic priorities – few actions to be executed and which matter the most to the success. Three-to-five years, three-to-five objectives/strategies – they describe specific actions to help execute the strategy, not values or financial targets.
Strategic priorities need to balance guidance with flexibility, counterbalance inertia of continuing doing business as normal, and unify the various business parts.
- Low number of priorities: Keeping a low number of priorities (usually 3-5) allows remembering, focusing and communicating them across the organization. This also allows managers to “fill-in the gaps” based on local knowledge/circumstances
- Focus on mid-term objectives: Strategic priorities bridge long-term vision and ongoing objectives. Sticking to them over time reinforces commitment.
- Future-looking: Keeping existing focuses is necessary for success, but innovation and change requires attention, yet are needed to drive the business forward.
- Make the hard calls: Focus on the most important, and eliminate the rest. Prioritizing everything results in “toothless” priorities.
- Address critical vulnerabilities: Elements that are most important for success, and are most likely to fail without focus and investment, both external (disruptive tech, new competition) or internal (org complexity, cultural change).
- Provide concrete guidance: Strategic objects for leaders/employees to use them to prioritize (or abandon) their activities.
- Align the top team: alignment of different parts of the company is needed for the execution, or each top executive and team will pull to their direction and their vision of the priorities, ignoring their impact on the other strategic priorities.