It’s about future. And to comment on future as mortal human beings is assuming oneself to be GOD.
We aren’t GOD!!
Companies continue to be cosy in their streak of luck or past achievements yet very few lessons can be learnt from the past. Past teaches you nothing. It only opens your eyes a bit more. The basic tenet of life is defined by CPDC. The three Hindu deities personify CPDC. Creation (Brahma), Preservation (Vishnu) and Destruction (Shiva). This applies not only to life form but also to product lifecycle, inventions, management styles and strategy.
The dynamic nature of every atom that makes this planet and millions of others ensures that life form keeps travelling to a higher plane (evolution) before it dies and paves way for new one. Strategy is dynamic too. It’s about future. It’s about the constant change in the state of things.
Companies can only ‘hope’ to address the following to survive:
What can we do to address future challenges and capture future opportunities?
What kind of leadership and culture we need to develop to tackle the unknown future?
What can we do to retain present customers to sell future products?
Are there any companies that have seemingly achieved this? Well if I was to say anything against Apple; half a dozen of my friends esp. Kasmira would put my life in danger because of their unflinching love and adulation for Apple products. So I suspect Apple has achieved customer retention for future products.
Leaders should continuously strive to define their future while addressing their present and believe in the CPDC cycle.
That’s all there is to it.
My last musing – Can strategy be theorised?
Well I am one of those "friends" Manu has referred to, and truly my marks in Strategy have hit the bottom of the bottom most pit possible!!! But as Manu brother has put it here…Strategy is about future, and not reading and regurgitating some case studies, and in the end concuring with what the examiner wants us to write.
Am sure that when we (If at all )take our jobs at such positions where it requires us to formulate strategies and shape the directions of our companies, our dear teachers would not be watching our actions or guiding us then, and drawing comparison with the case studies.
Learn from the case studies but remember – every case is different, every company and the environment it is in is different, and most importantly – every key person sitting at the helm of a company is incidentally a human being, who also is very different and bound to think and act differently..
I have successfully completed my project that invovled strategic positioning of a company, and guess what?? My work has truly been appreciated there and I have been offered a permanent placement!!! so much for strategising…
I took almost all modules related to Business Strategy during my own affair with the MBA and the only thing that was confirmed each time was that all the models and frameworks could so very well explain the past (pretending to be predicting,as if it wasn't already clear enough)and yet no one could for sure say anything about the future…and yes GOD we couldn't be 🙂
Manu – you must read this book!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Origin-Wealth-Evolution-Complexity-Economics/dp/0712676619
Leon