Strategy - It is all about your Hedgehog
In the process of consulting and advising my clients, I continue to see a pattern with the successful organizations. They all have a great strategy for success. First, what is strategy? Strategy is:
- Living, breathing, and totally dynamic. It is fun and fast. It is alive. Forget the arduous, intellectual number crunching and data grinding that gurus say you have to go through to get strategy right. Forget the scenario planning, year-long studies, and hundred-page reports. In real life, strategy is very straight forward. You pick a general direction, then implement and execute. If you want to win, ponder less, and do more.
- An iterative process and not nearly as theoretical or life-and-death as some would have you believe. When you strip away all the noise, strategy is about resource allocation. Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep the pockets.
- In such changing times, strategies, if they’re headed in the right direction and are broad enough, don’t really need to change all that often, especially if they are supplemented with fresh initiatives.
- When you think strategy, think about decommoditizing. Think about innovation, technology, internal processes, and service add-ons – whatever works to be unique.
What then have these great organizations figured out? They have come up with their “Big Aha” or as Jim Collins described in Good to Great, their “Hedgehog Concept.” They have determined what they can be the best at, what drives their economic engine, and what they are passionate about. Once they have this, they put the right people in the right jobs to drive it forward. They also relentlessly pursue this concept, adapt, and continually improve the idea.
What is holding your organization back from pursuing its Hedgehog? Contact me and request my Hedgehog Resource Guide.
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