A great article on the perils of bad strategy, forwarded to me by a Landor colleague. Written by UCLA management professor Richard Rumelt, the article (free registration required) covers some typical mistakes. These include: Mistaking goals for strategy, a "dog's dinner" of objectives and a "flurry of fluff" (restating the obvious using fancy language).
The highlight of the piece is an all-too familiar bad strategy template:
The Vision. Fill in your vision of what the business will be like in the future. Currently popular visions are to be the best or the leading or the best known.
The Mission. Fill in a high-sounding, politically correct statement of the purpose of the business. Innovation, human progress, and sustainable solutions are popular elements of a mission statement.
The Values. Fill in a statement that describes the company’s values. Make sure they are noncontroversial. Key words include “integrity,” “respect,” and “excellence.”
The Strategies. Fill in some aspirations/goals but call them strategies. For example, “to invest in a portfolio of performance businesses that create value for our shareholders and growth for our customers.”
If this is you, I suggest throwing it all away and starting over.
Friday, September 2, 2011
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2 comments:
I think that is good and wishing you the best of luck with your goal.
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